And from his seat Laodamas remov'd,
(The monarch's offspring, and his best belov'd)
There next his side the godlike hero sat;
With stars of silver shone the bed of state.
The golden ewer a beauteous handmaid brings,
Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs,
Whose polish'd vase with copious streams supplies
A silver laver, of capacious size.

The table next in regal order spread,
The glittering canisters are heap'd with bread :
Viands of various kinds invite the taste,
Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast!
Thus feasting high, Alcinous gave the sign,
And bade the herald pour the rosy wine.
'Let all around the due libation pay
To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way.'

He said. Pontonus heard the king's command: The circling goblet moves from hand to hand : Each drinks the juice that glads the heart of man. Alcinous then, with aspect mild, began:

'Princes and peers, attend! while we impart To you the thoughts of no inhuman heart. Now pleas'd and satiate from the social rite Repair we to the blessings of the night: But with the rising day, assembled here, Let all the elders of the land appear, Pious observe our hospitable laws, And heaven propitiate in the stranger's cause : Then join'd in council, proper means explore Safe to transport him to the wish'd-for shore : (How distant that, imports not us to know, Nor weigh the labour, but relieve the woe) Meantime, nor harm nor anguish let him bear: This interval, heaven trusts him to our care;

But to his native land our charge resign'd,
Heaven's is his life to come, and all the woes behind.
Then must he suffer what the fates ordain;
For fate has wove the thread of life with pain,
And twins, e'en from the birth, are misery and man!
'But if, descended from the' Olympian bower,
Gracious approach us some immortal power;
If in that form thou com'st a guest divine,
Some high event the conscious gods design.
As yet, unbid they never grac'd our feast,
The solemn sacrifice call'd down the guest;
Then manifest of heaven the vision stood,
And to our eyes familiar was the god.
Oft with some favour'd traveller they stray,
And shine before him all the desert way:
With social intercourse, and face to face,
The friends and guardians of our pious race..
So near approach we their celestial kind,
By justice, truth, and probity of mind;
As our dire neighbours of Cyclopæan birth
Match in fierce wrong the giant-sons of earth.'

'Let no such thought (with modest grace rejoin'd
The prudent Greek) possess the royal mind.
Alas! a mortal, like thyself, am I ;
No glorious native of yon azure sky :
In form, ah, how unlike their heavenly kind!
How more inferior in the gifts of mind!
Alas, a mortal! most oppress'd of those
Whom fate has loaded with a weight of woes;
By a sad train of miseries alone

Distinguish'd long, and second now to none!
By heaven's high will compell'd from shore to shore;
With heaven's high will prepar'd to suffer more.

What histories of toil could I declare?
But still long-wearied nature wants repair;
Spent with fatigue, and shrunk with pining fast,
My craving bowels still require repast.
Howe'er the noble, suffering mind, may grieve
Its load of anguish, and disdain to live;
Necessity demands our daily bread;
Hunger is insolent, and will be fed.
But finish, O ye peers! what you propose,
And let the morrow's dawn conclude my woes:
Pleas'd will I suffer all the gods ordain,
To see my soil, my son, my friends, again.
That view vouchsaf'd, let instant death surprise
With ever-during shade these happy eyes!"

The' assembled peers with general praise approv'd
His pleaded reason, and the suit he mov'd.
Each drinks a full oblivion of his cares,
And to the gifts of balmy sleep repairs.
Ulysses in the regal walls alone
Remain'd: beside him, on a splendid throne,
Divine Arete and Alcinous shone.

The queen, on nearer view, the guest survey'd Rob'd in the garments her own hands had made; Not without wonder seen. Then thus began, Her words addressing to the godlike man:

}

'Cam'st thou not hither, wondrous stranger! say, From lands remote, and o'er a length of sea? Tell then whence art thou? whence that princely air? And robes like these, so recent and so fair?" 'Hard is the task, O princess! you impose, (Thus sighing spoke the man of many woes) The long, the mournful series to relate Of all my sorrows, sent by heaven and fate!

Yet what you ask, attend. An island lies
Beyond these tracts, and under other skies,
Ogygia nam'd, in Ocean's watry arms;
Where dwells Calypso, dreadful in her charms !
Remote from gods or men she holds her reign,
Amid the terrors of the rolling main.
Me, only me, the hand of fortune bore,
Unbless'd! to tread that interdicted shore,
When Jove tremendous in the sable deeps
Launch'd his red lightning at our scatter'd ships :
Then, all my fleet, and all my followers lost,
Sole on a plank, on boiling surges toss'd,
Heaven drove my wreck the' Ogygian isle to find,
Full nine days floating to the wave and wind.
Met by the goddess there with open arms,
She brib'd my stay with more than human charms;
Nay promis'd, vainly promis'd, to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
But all her blandishments successless prove,
To banish from my breast my country's love.
I stay reluctant seven continued years,
And water her ambrosial couch with tears.
The eighth, she voluntary moves to part,
Or urg'd by Jove, or her own changeful heart.
A raft was form'd to cross the surging sea;
Herself supplied the stores and rich array ;
And gave the gales to waft me on the way.
In seventeen days appear'd your pleasing coast,
And woody mountains half in vapours lost.
Joy touch'd my soul: my soul was joy'd in vain,
For angry Neptune rous'd the raging main;
The wild winds whistle, and the billows roar;
The splitting raft the furious tempest tore ;
And storms vindictive intercept the shore.

{

Soon as their rage subsides, the seas I brave
With naked force, and shoot along the wave,
To reach this isle: but there my hopes were lost,
The surge impell'd me on a craggy coast.
I chose the safer sea, and chanc'd to find
A river's mouth, impervious to the wind,
And clear of rocks. I fainted by the flood;
Then took the shelter of the neighbouring wood.
"Twas night; and cover'd in the foliage deep,
Jove plung'd my senses in the death of sleep.
All night I slept, oblivious of my pain:
Aurora dawn'd, and Phœbus shin'd in vain,
Nor till oblique he slop'd his evening ray,
Had Somnus dried the balmy dews away.
Then female voices from the shore I heard:
A maid amidst them, goddess-like, appear'd :
To her I sued, she pitied my distress;
Like thee in beauty, nor in virtue less.
Who from such youth could hope considerate care?
In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!
She gave me life, reliev'd with just supplies
My wants, and lent these robes that strike your

eyes.

This is the truth: and oh, ye powers on high!
Forbid that want should sink me to a lie.'

To this the king: Our daughter but express'd
Her cares imperfect to our godlike guest.
Suppliant to her, since first he chose to pray,
Why not herself did she conduct the way,
And with her handmaids to our court convey?"

'Hero and king! (Ulysses thus replied) Nor blame her, faultless, nor suspect of pride: She bade me follow in the' attendant train; But fear and reverence did my steps detain,

}