With rapture oft the verge of Greece reviews,
And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews
Him thus exulting on the distant strand,
A spy distinguish'd from his airy stand;
To bribe whose vigilance, Ægysthus told
A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold:
There watch'd this guardian of his guilty fear,
Till the twelfth moon had wheel'd her pale career.
And now, admonish'd by his eye, to court
With terror wing'd conveys the dread report.
Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs
The ministers of blood in dark surprise;
And twenty youths in radiant mail incased,
Close ambush'd nigh the spacious hall he placed.
Then bids prepare the hospitable treat:
Vain shows of love to veil his felon-hate!
To grace the victor's welcome from the wars
A train of coursers, and triumphal cars
Magnificent he leads: the royal guest,
Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.
The troop forth-issuing from the dark recess,
With homicidal rage the king oppress.
So, whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall,
The sovereign of the herd is doom'd to fall.
The partners of his fame and toils at Troy,
Around their lord, a mighty ruin! lie:
Mix'd with the brave, the base invaders bleed;
Ægysthus sole survives to boast the deed.

700 With ritual hecatombs the gods adore:
Their wrath atoned, to Agamemnon's name
A cenotaph I raise of deathless fame.
These rites to piety and grief discharged,
The friendly gods a springing gale enlarged:

705

705 The fleet swift tilting o'er the surges flew
Till Grecian cliffs appear'd, a blissful view!
Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate
A story, fruitful of disastrous fate:
And now, young prince, indulge my fond request.

710 Be Sparta honour'd with his royal guest,
Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous sun
His twelfth diurnial race begins to run.
Meantime my train the friendly gifts prepare,
Three sprightly coursers, and a polish'd car:

715 With these, a goblet of capacious mould,
Figured with art to dignify the gold
(Formed for libation to the gods,) shall prove
A pledge and monument of sacred love.

My quick return, young Ithacus rejoin'd,
720 Damps the warm wishes of my raptured mind:
Did not my fate my needful haste constrain,
Charmed by your speech so graceful and humane,
Lost in delight the circling year would roll,
While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.

725 But now to Pyle pernit my destined way,
My loved associates chide my long delay':
In dear remembrance of your royal grace,
I take the present of the promised vase;
The coursers, for the champaign sports, retain;

He said; chill horrors shook my shivering soul,
Rack'd with convulsive pangs in dust I roll;
And hate, in madness of extreme despair,
To view the sun, or breathe the vital air.
But when, superior to the rage of woe,
I stood restored, and tears bad ceased to flow;
Lenient of grief, the pitying god began-
Forget the brother, and resume the man:
To Fate's supreme dispose the dead resign,
That care be Fate's, a speedy passage thine.
Still lives the wretch who wrought the death deplored,

But lives a victim for thy vengeful sword;
Unless with filial rage Orestes glow
And swift prevent the meditated blow :
You timely will return a welcome guest,
With him to share the sad funereal feast.
He said: new thoughts my beating heart employ,

My gloomy soul receives a gleam of joy
Fair hope revives; and eager I addrest
The prescient godhead to reveal the rest.
The doom decreed of those disastrous two
I've heard with pain, but, oh! the tale pursue;
What third brave son of Mars the Fates constrain
To roam the howling desert of the main;
Or, in eternal shade if cold he lies,
Provoke new sorrows from these grateful eyes.
That chief (rejoin'd the god) his race derives
From Ithaca, and wondrous woes survives;
Laërtes' son: girt with circumfluous tides,
He still calamitous constraint abides.
Him in Calypso's cave of late I view'd,
When streaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.
But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move
The enamour'd goddess, or elude her love:
His vessel sunk, and dear companions lost,
He lives reluctant on a foreign coast.
But oh, beloved by heaven! reserved to thee
A happier lot the smiling Fates decree:
Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is changed, and varying forms decay;
Elysium shall be thine; the blissful plains
Of utmost earth, where Rhadmanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of the eternal year:
Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime:
The fields are florid with unfading prime;
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow:
But from the breezy deep the blest inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.

736

730 That gift our barren rocks will render vain :
Horrid with cliffs, our meagre land allows
Thin herbage for the mountain goat to browse,
But neither mead nor plain supplies, to feed
The sprightly courser, or indulge his speed:
To sea-surrounded realms the gods assign
Sınall tract of fertile lawn, the least to mine.
His hand the king with tender passion press'd,
And, smiling, thus the royal youth address'd:
O early worth! a soul so wise, and young,
740 Proclaims you from the sage Ulysses sprung
Selected from my stores, of matchless price
An urn shall recompense your prudent choice
Not mean the massy mould of silver, graced
By Vulcan's art, the verge with gold enchased;

745 A pledge the scepter'd power of Sidon gave,
When to his realm I plough'd the orient wave.
Thus they alternate; while with artful care
The menial train the regal feast prepare:
The firstlings of the flock are doom'd to die;
750 Rich fragrant wines the cheering bowl supply;
A female band the gift of Cares bring;
And the gilt roofs with genial triumph ring.
Meanwhile, in Ithaca, the suitor powers
In active gaines divide their jovial hours:

755 In areas varied with mosaic art,

Some whirl the disk, and some the javelin dart.
Aside, sequester'd from the vast resort,
Antinoüs sate spectator of the sport;
With great Eurymachus, of worth confess'd,

760 And high descent, superior to the rest;

Whom young Noëmon lowly thus address'd.
My ship, equipp'd within the neighbouring port,
The prince, departing for the Pylian court,
Requested for his speed; but, courteous, say
765 When steers he hoine, or why this long delay?
For Elis I should sail with utmost speed,

To import twelve mares which there luxurious feed,
And twelve young mules, a strong laborious race,
New to the plough, unpractised in the trace.

Unknowing of the course to Pyle design'd,

800

805

810

815

824

825

830

395

640

845

850

855

860

770

A sudden horror seized on either mind:
The prince in rural bower they fondly thought,
Numbering his flocks and herds, not far remote.
Relate, Antinoüs cries, devoid of guile,
When spread the prince his sail for distant Pyle?
Did chosen chiefs across the gulfy main
Attend his voyage, or domestic train?
Spontaneous did you speed his secret course,
Or was the vessel seized by fraud or force?
With willing duty, not reluctant mind
(Noëmon cried,) the vessel was resign'd,
Who, in the balance, with the great affairs
Of courts, presume to weigh their private cares?

865

870

875

Soon as the morn reveals the roseat east,

With him, the peerage next in power to you:

With sails we wing the masts, our anchors weigh, 785 And Mentor, captain of the lordly crew,

To whom the queen (whilst yet her pensive mind 1065 If from your thouglits Ulysses you remove,

From what deep source my ceaseless sorrows flow! 1070 And press'd unwilling in Calypso's arms.

To the fierce storms, or inen more fierce than they;

All on the lonely shore he sate to weep,
And roll'd his eyes around the restless deep;
Toward his loved coast he roll'd his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm'd with rising grief, they stream'd again.
Now graceful seated on her shining throne,
To Hermes thus the nymph divine begun :
God of the golden wand! on what behest
Arrivest thou here, an unexpected guest?
Loved as thon art, thy free injunctions lay;
"Tis mine, with joy and duty to obey.
Till now a stranger, in a happy hour
Approach, and taste the dainties of my bower.
Thus having spoke, the nymph the table spread
(Ambrosial cates, with nectar rosy-red;)
Hermes the hospitable rite partook,
Divine refection! then, recruited, spoke:

What moved this journey from my native sky,
A goddess asks, nor can a god deny:
Hear then the truth. By mighty Jove's command
Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land;

1051 For now, reluctant, and constrain'd by charme,
Absent he lay in her desiring arms,
In slumber wore the heavy night away,
On rocks and shores consumed the tedious day:
There sate all desolate, and sigh'd alone,

110 With echoing sorrows made the mountains groan
And roll'd his eyes o'er all the restless main,
Till, dimm'd with rising grief, they stream'd again.
Here, on his musing mood the goddess press'd,
Approaching soft: and thus the chief addess'd.

115 Unhappy man! to wasting woes a prey,
No more in sorrows languish life away:
Free as the winds I give thee now to rove-
Go, fell the timber of yon lofty grove,

200

205

210

And form a raft, and build the rising ship,
120 Sublime to bear thee o'er the gloomy deep.
To store the vessel let the care be mine,
With water from the rock, and rosy wine,
And life-sustaining bread, and fair array,
And prosperous gales to waft thee on the way.

215

For whe, self-moved, with weary wing would sweep 125 These, if the gods with my desires comply,

Such length of ocean and unmeasured deep:
A world of waters! far from all the ways
Where men frequent, or sacred altars blaze?
But to Jove's will submission we must pay:
What power so great, to dare to disobey?

(The gods, alas, more mighty far than I,
And better skill'd in dark events to come,)
In peace shall land thee at thy native home.
With sighs Ulysses heard the words she spoke,

220

130 Then thus his melancholy silence broke.

A inan, he says, a man resides with thee,

Of all his kind most worn with misery;

The Greeks, (whose arms for nine long years employ'd

Their force on Ilion, in the tenth destroy'd)

At length embarking in a luckless hour,
With conquest proud, incensed Minerva's power:
Hence on the guilty race her vengeance hurl'd
With storms pursued them through the liquid world.

135

There all his vessels sunk beneath the wave!

Some other motive, goddess! sways thy mind
(Some close design, or turn of womankind,)
Nor my return the end, nor this the way,
On a slight raft to pass the swelling sea,
Huge, horrid, vast! where scarce in safety sails
The best-built ship, though Jove inspire the gales.
The bold proposal how shall I fulfil,
Dark as I am, unconscious of thy will?
Swear then thou mean'st not what my soul forebodes;

225

230

There all his dear companions found their grave! 140 Swear by the solemn oath that binds the gods.
Saved from the jaws of death by heaven's decree,
The tempest drove him to these shores and thee.
Him, Jove now orders to his native lands
Straight to dismiss; so destiny commands:
Impatient fate his near return attends,
And calls him to his country, and his friends.

Even to her inmost soul the goddess shook;
Then thus her anguish and her passion broke.
Ungracious gods! with spite and envy curst!
Still to your own ethereal race the worst!
Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,
And love, the only sweet of life, destroy.
Did ever goddess by her charms engage
A favour'd mortal, and not feel your rage?
So when Aurora sought Orion's love,
Her joys disturb'd your blissful hours above,
Till, in Ortygia, Dian's winged dart
Had pierced the hapless hunter to the heart.
So when the covert of the thrice-ear'd field
Saw stately Ceres to her passion yield,
Scarce could läsion taste her heavenly charms,
But Jove's swift lightning scorch'd him in her arms,
And is it now my turn, ye mighty powers !
Am I the envy of your blissful bowers?
A man, an outcast to the storın and wave,
It was my crime to pity, and to save;
When he who thunders rent his bark in twain,
And sunk his brave companions in the main,
Alone, abandon'd, in mid-ocean toss'd,
The sport of winds, and driven from every coast,
Hither this man of miseries I led,

Received the friendless, and the hungry fed;
Nay promised (vainly promised!) to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
Tis past-and Jove decrees he shall remove;
Gods as we are, we are but slaves to Jove.
Go then he may (he must, if he ordain,
Try all those dangers, all those deeps, again:)
But never, never shall Calypso send
To toils like these, her husband and her friend.
What ships have I, what sailors to convey,
What oars to cut the long laborious way?
Yet, I'll direct the safest means to go;
That last advice is all I can bestow

To her the power who bears the charming rod :
Dismiss the man, nor irritate the god;
Prevent the rage of him who reigns above,
For what so dreadful as the wrath of Jove?
Thus having said, he cut the cleaving sky,
And in a moment vanish'd from her eye.
The nymph, obedient to divine command,
To seek Ulysses, paced along the sand.
Him pensive on the lonely beach she found,
With streaming eyes in briny torrents drown'd,
And inly pining for his native shore;

For now the soft enchantress pleased no more:

Him, while he spoke, with smiles Calypso eyed,
And gently grasp'd his hand, and thus replied:
This shews thee, friend, by old experience taught, 235
And learn'd in all the wiles of human thought.
145 How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
But hear, oh earth, and hear, ye sacred skies!
And thou, oh Styx! whose formidable floods
Glide through the shades, and bind the attesting gods 1 240
No form'd design, no meditated end,

150 Lurks in the counsel of thy faithful friend;
Kind the persuasion, and sincere my aim;
The same my practice, were my fate the same.
Heaven has not curst me with a heart of steel,
But given the sense, to pity, and to feel.

155

250

245

165

Thus having said, the goddess march'd before:
He trod her footsteps in the sandy shore.
At the cool cave arrived, they took their state:
He fill'd the throne where Mercury had sate.
For him, the nymph a rich repast ordains,
160 Such as the mortal life of man sustains;
Before herself were placed the cates divine,
Ambrosial banquet, and celestial wine.
Their hunger satiate, and their thirst represt,
Thus spoke Calypso to her god-like guest;
Ulysses! (with a sigh she thus began;)
O sprung from gods! in wisdom more than man!
Is then thy home the passion of thy heart?
Thus wilt thou leave me, are we thus to part?
Farewel! and ever joyful may'st thon be,

255

260

Might banish from thy mind an absent wife.
Am I inferior to a mortal dame?
Less soft my feature, less august my frame?
Or shall the daughters of mankind compare
.80 Their earth-born beauties with the heavenly fair?
Alas! for this (the prudent man replies)
Against Ulysses shall thy anger rise?
Loved and adored, oh goddess, as thou art,
Forgive the weakness of a human heart.

185 Though well I see thy graces far above
The dear, though mortal, object of my love,
Of youth eternal will the difference know,
And the short date of fading charms below;
Yet every day, while absent thus I roam,

190 I languish to return and die at home.

Whate'er the gods shall destine me to bear
In the black ocean, or the watry war,
Tis mine to master with a constant mind;
Inured to perils, to the worst resign'd.

195 By seas, by wars, so many dangers run;
Still I can suffer: their high will be done t

270

275

280

295 385

Then shook the hero, to despair resign'd,
290 And question'd thus his yet unconquer'd mind.
Wretch that I am! what farther fates attend
This life of toils, and what my destined end?
Too well, alas! the island goddess knew,
On the black sea what perils should ensue.
295 New horrors now this destined head enclose
Unfill'd is yet the measure of my woes;
With what a cloud the brows of heaven are crown'd!
What raging winds! what roaring waters round! 390
Tis Jove himself the swelling tempest rears;

Thus while he spoke, the beamy sun descends,
And rising night her friendly shade extends.
To the close grot the lonely pair remove,
And slept delighted with the gifts of love.
When rosy morning call'd them from their rest,
Ulysses robed him in the cloak and vest.
The nymph's fair head a veil transparent graced,
Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced
With flowers of gold: an under robe, unbound,
In snowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground.
Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield
A weighty ax with truest temper steel'd,
And doubled-edged; the handle smooth and plain,
Wrought of the clouded olive's easy grain;
And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway:
Then to the neighbouring forest led the way.
On the lone island's utmost verge there stood
Of poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,
Scorch'd by the sun, or sear'd by heavenly fire
(Already dried.) These pointing out to view,
The nymph just shew'd him, and with tears withdrew.

300 Death, present death, on every side appears.
Happy! thrice happy! who, in battle slain,
Press'd, in Atrides' cause, the Trojan plain!
Oh! had I died before that well-fought wall;
Had some distinguish'd day renown'd my fall
305 (Such as was that when showers of javelins fled
From conquering Troy around Achilles dead):
All Greece had paid me solemn funerals then,.
And spread my glory with the sons of men.
A shameful fate now hides my hapless head,
Unwept, unnoted, and for ever dead!

395

400

311

A mighty wave rush'd o'er him as he spoke,
The raft it cover'd, and the mast it broke;
Swept from the deck, and from the rudder torn,
Far on the swelling surge the chief was borne;

315 While by the howling tempest rent in twain
Flew sail and sail-yards rattling o'or the main.
Long press'd, he heaved beneath the weighty wave,
Clogg'd by the cumbrous vest Calypso gave;
At length emerging, from his nostrils wide
And gushing mouth, effused the briny tide,
Even then not mindless of kis last retreat,
He seized the raft, and leap'd into his seat,
Strong with the fear of death. The rolling flood
Now here, now there, impell'd the floating wood.

120

405

410

:

415

Now toils the hero: trees on trees o'erthrown Fall crackling round him, and the forests groan: Sudden, full twenty on the plain are strow'd, And lopp'd and lighten'd of their branchy load. At equal angles these disposed to join,

He smooth'd and squared them by the rule and line.
(The wimbles for the work Calypso found)
With those he pierced them, and with clinchers bound.
Long and capacious as a shipwright forms
Some bark's broad bottom to out-ride the storms,
So large he built the raft: then ribb'd it strong
From space to space, and nail'd the planks along;
These form'd the sides: the deck he fashion'd last;
Then o'er the vessel raised the taper mast,
With crossing sail-yards dancing in the wind;
And to the helm the guiding rudder join'd
(With yielding osiers fenced, to break the force
Of surging waves, and steer the steady course).
Thy loom, Calypso! for the future sails
Supplied the cloth, capacious of the gales.
With stays and cordage last he rigg'd the ship,
And, roll'd on levers, launch'd her in the deep.

325 As when a heap of gather'd thorns is east
Now to, now fro, before the autumnal blast;
Together clung, it rolls around the field;
So roll'd the float, and so its texture held:
And now the south, and now the north, bear sway,

426

330 And now the east the foamy floods obey,

And now the west-wind whirls it o'er the sea.
The wandering chief with toils on toils oppress'd,
Leucothea saw, and pity touch'd her breast
(Herself a mortal once, of Cadmus' strain,

425

Swift as a sea-mew, springing from the flooa,
All radiant on the raft the goddess stood:
Then thus address'd him: Thou, whom heaven decrees
To Neptune's wrath, stern tyrant of the seas:

431

Four days were past, and now the work complete, Shone the fifth morn, when from her sacred seat

The nymph dismiss'd him (odorous garments given) 335 But now an azure sister of the main).
And bath'd in fragrant oils that breath'd of heaven
Then fill'd two goat-skins with her hands divine,
With water one, and one with sable wine:
Of every kind, provisions heaved aboard;
And the full decks with copious viands stored.
The goddess, last, a gentle breeze supplies,
To curl old Ocean, and to warm the skies.
'And now, rejoicing in the prosperous gales,
With beating heart Ulysses spreads his sails :
Placed at the helm he sate, and mark'd the skies,
Nor closed in sleep his ever-watchful eyes.
'There view'd the Pleiads, and the Northern Team,
And great Orion's more refulgent beam,
To which, around the axle of the sky
The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye:
Who shines exalted on the etherial plain,
Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main.
Far on the left those radiant fires to keep
The nymph directed, as he sail'd the deep.
Full seventeen nights he cut the foamy way:
The distant land appear'd the following day:
Then swell'd to sight Phœacia's dusky coast,
And woody mountains, half in vapours lost;
That lay before him indistinct and vast,
Like a broad shield amid the watry waste.
But him, thus voyaging the deeps below,
From far, on Solymè's aërial brow,
The king of ocean saw, and seeing burn'd
(From Æthiopia's happy climes return'd);
The raging monarch shook his azure head,
And thus in secret to his soul he said.

340 (Unequal contest 1) not his rage and power,
Great as he is, such virtue shall devour.
What I suggest, thy wisdom will perform;
Forsake thy float, and leave it to the storm:
Strip off thy garments; Neptune's fury brave
345 With naked strength, and plunge into the wave.

Heavens! how uncertain are the powers on high!
Is then reversed the sentence of the sky,
In one man's favour; whilst a distant guest
I shared secure the Æthiopian feast?
Behold how near Phæacia's land he draws!
The land, affix'd by Fate's eternal laws
To end his toils. Is then our anger vain?
No; if this sceptre yet commands the main.

435

440

To reach Phæacia all thy nerves extend,
There Fate decrees thy miseries shall end.
This heavenly scarf beneath thy bosom bind,
And live; give all thy terrors to the wind.
350 Soon as thy arms the happy shore shall gain,
Return the gift, and cast it in the main;
Observe my orders, and with heed obey,
Cast it far off, and turn thy eyes away.
With that, her hand the sacred veil bestows,
355 Then down the deeps she dived from whence she rose

A moment snatch'd the shining form away,
And all was cover'd with the curling sea.
Struck with amaze, yet still to doubt inclined,
He stands suspended, and explores his mind.
360 What shall I do? unhappy me! who knows
But other gods intend me other woes?
Whoe'er thou art, I shall not blindly join
Thy pleaded reason, but consult with mine
For scarce in ken appears that distant isle
365 Thy voice foretells me shall conclude my toil.

Thus then I judge: while yet the planks sustain
The wild waves' fury, here I fix'd remain;
But when their texture to the tempest yields,
I launch adventurous on the liquid fields,

370 Join to the help of gods the strength of man,
And take this method, since the best I can.
While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold,
The raging god a watry mountain roll'd;

Like a black sheet the whelming billows spread,
375 Burst o'er the float, and thunder'd on his head.
Planks, beams, disparted fly; the scatter'd wood
Rolls diverse, and in fragments strews the flood.
So the rude Boreas, o'er the field new-shorn
Tosses and drives the scatter'd heaps of corn.