sleep.

All night I slept, oblivious of my pain: 370
Aurora dawn'd, and Phœbus shined in vain,
Nor, till oblique he sloped his ev'ning ray,
Had Somnus dried the balmy dews away.
Then female voices from the shore I heard:
A maid amidst them, goddess-like, ap-
pear'd;

To her I sued, she pitied my distress;
Like thee in beauty, nor in virtue less.
Who from such youth could hope con-
sid'rate care?

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare! She gave me life, reliev'd with just supplies 380

My wants, and lent these robes that strike

When justly timed with equal sweep they

row,

And ocean whitens in long tracks below." Thus he. No word the experienc'd man

replies,

But thus to Heav'n (and Heav'nward lifts his eyes):

O

Jove! O Father! what the King

cords

Do

thou make perfect! sacred be his words !

'Amid these joys, why seeks thy mind to know

Th' unhappy series of a wand'rer's woe? Remembrance sad, whose image to review, Alas! must open all my wounds anew! And oh, what first, what last shall I relate, Of woes unnumber'd sent by Heav'n and Fate?

'Know first the man (tho' now a wretch distress'd)

Who hopes thee, Monarch, for his future guest:

Behold Ulysses! no ignoble name, Earth sounds my wisdom, and high Heav'n my fame.

20

'My native soil is Ithaca the fair, Where high Neritus waves his woods in air; Dulichium, Samè, and Zacynthus crown'd With shady mountains, spread their isles around

(These to the north and night's dark regions run,

Those to Aurora and the rising sun);

Low lies our isle, yet bless'd in fruitful stores;

Strong are her sons, tho' rocky are her shores;

And none, ah none, so lovely to my sight, Of all the lands that Heav'n o'erspreads with light!

30

In vain Calypso long constrain'd my stay,
With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay;
With all her charms as vainly Circe strove,
And added magic to secure my love.
In pomps or joys, the palace or the grot,
My country's image never was forgot,
My absent parents rose before my sight,
And distant lay contentment and delight.
'Hear, then, the woes which mighty Jove
ordain'd

39

To wait my passage from the Trojan land.
The winds from Ilion to the Cicons' shore,
Beneath cold Ismarus, our vessels bore.
We boldly landed on the hostile place,
And sack'd the city, and destroy'd the race,
Their wives made captive, their possessions

shared,

70

With sails outspread we fly th' unequal strife,

Sad for their loss, but joyful of our life. Yet as we fled, our fellows' rites we paid, And thrice we call'd on each unhappy shade.

'Meanwhile the God, whose hand the thunder forms,

Drives clouds on clouds, and blackens Heav'n with storms,

Wide o'er the waste the rage of Boreas sweeps,

And night rush'd headlong on the shaded deeps.

Now here, now there, the giddy ships are borne,

And all the rattling shrouds in fragments

(A herald one) the dubious coast to view, And learn what habitants possess'd the place.

They went, and found a hospitable race: Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,

They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast:

The trees around them all their food produce;

Lotus the name: divine, nectareous juice
(Thence called Lotophagi); which whose
tastes,

Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts,
Nor other home nor other care intends,
But quits his house, his country, and his
friends.

The three we sent, from off th' enchanting ground

We dragged reluctant, and by force we bound:

The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,

Or, the charm tasted, had return'd ne

more.

Now placed in order on their banks, they

sweep

The sea's smooth face, and cleave the hoary deep;

With heavy hearts we labour thro' the

tide,

To coasts unknown, and oceans yet untried.

Refreshing meads along the murm'ring

main,

And fountains streaming down the fruitful plain.

'A port there is, inclosed on either side, Where ships may rest, unanchor'd and untied;

159

Till the glad mariners incline to sail,
And the sea whitens with the rising gale.
High at the head from out the cavern'd
rock,

In living rills a gushing fountain broke:
Around it, and above, for ever green,
The bushy alders form'd a shady scene.
Hither some fav'ring God, beyond our
thought,

Thro' all-surrounding shade our navy brought;

For gloomy night descended on the main, Nor glimmer'd Phoebe in th' ethereal plain:

But all unseen the clouded island lay, And all unseen the surge and rolling

Till safe we anchor'd in the shelter'd bay: Our sails we gather'd, cast our cables o'er, And slept secure along the sandy shore. Soon as again the rosy morning shone, Reveal'd the landscape and the scene unknown,

With wonder seiz'd, we view the pleasing ground,

And walk delighted, and expatiate round. Rous'd by the woodland nymphs at early dawn,

The mountain goats came bounding o'er the lawn:

In haste our fellows to the ships repair, 180 For arms and weapons of the sylvan war; Straight in three squadrons all our crew we part,

And bend the bow, or wing the missile dart;

The bounteons Gods afford a copious prey, And nine fat goats each vessel bears away: The royal bark had ten. Our ships com

plete