And bitter fate. To speak he made essay,
In vain essay'd, nor would his tongue obey
His swelling heart denied the words their way:
But speaking tears the want of words supply,
And the full soul bursts copious from his eye.
Affrighted, anxious for our fellows' fates,
We press to hear what sadly he relates.
We went, Ulysses! (Such was thy command!)
Through the lone thicket and the desert land.
A palace in a woody vale we found
Brown with dark forests, and with shades around.
A voice celestial echoed from the dome,
Or nymph or goddess, chanting to the loom.
Access we sought, nor was access denied:
Radiant she came; the portals open'd wide:
The goddess mild invites the guests to stay:
They blindly follow where she leads the way.
I only wait behind of all the train:
I waited long, and eyed the doors in vain :
The rest are vanish'd, none repass'd the gate;
And not a man appears to tell their fate.
I heard, and instant o'er my shoulders flung
The belt in which my weighty falchion hung;
(A beamy blade ;) then seized the bended bow,
And bade him guide the way, resolved to go.
He, prostrate falling, with both hands embraced
My knees, and weeping thus his suit address'd:
O king, beloved of Jove, thy servant spare,
And ah, thyself the rash attempt forbear!
Never, alas! thou never shalt return,
Or see the wretched for whose loss we mourn.
With what remains from certain ruin fly,
And save the few not fated yet to die.
I answer'd stern. Inglorious then remain,
Here feast and loiter, and desert thy train.
Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way;
The laws of fate compel, and I obey.
So shall thy tedious toils a respite find,
And thy lost friends return to human-kind.
290 But swear her first by those dread oaths that tie
The powers below, the blessed in the sky;
Lest to thee naked secret fraud be meant,
Or magic bind thee cold and impotent.
Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drew,
Where on the all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew,
And show'd its nature and its wondrous power:
Black was the root, but milky white the flower;
Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,
But all is easy to the ethereal kind.
300 This Hermes gave, then, gliding off the glade,
Shot to Olympus from the woodland shade.
While, full of thought, revolving fates to come,
I speed my passage to the enchanted dome.
Arrived, before the lofty gates I stay'd;
The lofty gates the goddess wide display'd:
She leads before, and to the feast invites;
I follow sadly to the magic rites.
Radiant with starry studs, a silver seat
Received my limbs: a footstool eased my feet.
She mix'd the potion, fraudulent of soul;
The poison mantled in the golden bowl.
I took, and quaff'd it, confident in heaven:
Then waved the wand, and then the word was
Hence to thy fellows! (dreadful she began)
Go, be a beast!-I heard, and yet was man.
Then sudden whirling, like a waving flame,
My beamy falchion, I assault the dame.
Struck with unusual fear, she trembling crics,
320 She faints, she falls; she lifts her weeping eyes.
What art thou? say! from whence, from whom
you came?
This said, and scornful turning from the shore
My haughty step, I stalk'd the valley o'er.
Till now approaching nigh the magic bower,
Where dwelt the enchantress skill'd in herbs of
power;
A form divine forth issuing from the wood
(Immortal Hermes with the golden rod)
In human semblance. On his bloomy face
Youth smiled celestial, with each opening grace.
He seized my hand, and gracious thus began:
Ah, whither roam'st thou, much-enduring man?
O blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove
The horrid mazes of this magic grove?
Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies,
All lost their form, and habitants of sties.
Think'st thou by wit to model their escape?
Sooner shalt thou, a stranger to thy shape,
Fall prone their equal: first thy danger know,
Then take the antidote the gods bestow.
The plant I give, through all the direful bower
Shall guard thee, and avert the evil hour.
Now hear her wicked arts.
Before thy eyes
The bowl shall sparkle, and the banquet rise;
Take this, nor from the faithless feast abstain,
For temper'd drugs and poison shall be vain.
Soon as she strikes her wand, and gives the word,
Draw forth and brandish thy retilgent sword,
And menace death; those menaces shail move
Her alter'd mind to blandishment and love.
Nor shun the blessing proffer'd to thy arms,
Ascend her bed, and taste celestial charms:
O more than human! tell thy race, thy name.
Amazing strength, these poisons to sustain
Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain.
Or art thou he? the man to come (foretold
By Hermes powerful with the wand of gold?)
The man from Troy, who wander'd ocean round;
The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Ulysses? Oh! thy threatening fury cease,
330 Sheath thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace!
Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine,
And love, and love-born confidence, be thine.
And how, dread Circe! (furious I rejoin)
Can love, and love-born confidence be mine?
Beneath thy charms when my companions groan,
Transform'd to beasts, with accents not their own?
O thou of fraudful heart, shall I be led
To share thy feast-rites, or ascend thy bed,
That, all unarm'd, thy vengeance may have vent,
340 And magic bind me, cold and impotent?
Celestial as thou art, yet stand denied;
Or swear, that oath by which the gods are tried,
Swear, in thy soul no latent frauds remain,
Swear by the vow which never can be vain.
The goddess swore then seized my hand, and led
To the sweet transports of the genial bed.
Ministrant to the queen, with busy care
Four faithful handmaids the soft rites prepare;
Nymphs sprung from fountains, or from shady woods,
350 Or the fair offspring of the sacred floods.
One o'er the couches painted carpets threw,
Whose purple lustre glow'd against the view:
Another placed
White linen lay beneath.
420
The silver stands, with golden flaskets graced :
With dulcet beverage this the beaker crown'd,
Fair in the midst, with gilded cups around;
That in the tripod o'er the kindled pile
The water pours; the bubbling waters boil;
An ample vase receives the smoking wave;
And, in the bath prepared, my limbs I lave;
Reviving sweets repair the mind's decay,
And take the painful sense of toil away.
A vest and tunic o'er me next she threw,
Fresh from the bath, and dropping balmy dew;
Then led and placed me on the sovereign seat,
With carpets spread; a footstool at my feet.
The golden ewer a nymph obsequious brings,
Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs,
With copious water the bright vase supplies
A silver laver of capacious size.
I wash'd. The table in fair order spread,
They heap the glittering canisters with bread;
Viands of various kinds allure the taste,
Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast!
Circe in vain invites the feast to share;
Absent I ponder, and absorpt in care :
While scenes of woe rose anxious in my breast,
The queen beheld me, and these words addrest:
Why sits Ulysses silent and apart,
Some hoard of grief close harbour'd at his heart?
Untouch'd before thee stand the cates divine,
And unregarded laughs the rosy wine.
Can yet a doubt or any dread remain,
When sworn that oath which never can be vain?
I answer'd-Goddess! human is my breast,
By justice sway'd, by tender pity press'd:
Ill fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts,
To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts.
Rush to their mothers with unruly joy,
And echoing hills return the tender cry:
So round me press'd, exulting at my sight,
With cries and agonies of wild delight,
The weeping sailors; nor less fierce their joy
Than if return'd to Ithaca from Troy.
Ah master! ever honour'd, ever dear!
(These tender words on every side I hear)
What other joy can equal thy return?
430 Not that loved country for whose sight we mourn,
The soil that nursed us, and that gave us breath:
But ah! relate our lost companions' death.
I answer'd cheerfully. Haste, your galley moor
And bring our treasures and our arms ashore:
Those in yon hollow caverns let us lay;
Then rise and follow where I lead the way.
Your fellows live: believe your eyes, and come
To taste the joys of Circe's sacred dome.
With ready speed the joyful crew obey:
440 Alone Eurylochus persuades their stay.
Whither (he cried) ah whither will ye run?
Seek ye to meet those evils ye should shun?
Will you the terrors of the dome explore,
In swine to grovel, or in lions roar,
Or, wolf-like, howl away the midnight hour
In dreadful watch around the magic bower?
Remember Cyclops, and his bloody deed;
The leader's rashness made the soldiers bleed.
I heard incensed, and first resolved to speed
450 My flying falchion at the rebel's head.
Dear as he was, by ties of kindred bound,
This hand had stretch'd him breathless on the
But all at once my interposing train
Me wouldst thou please? for them thy cares employ, For mercy pleaded, nor could plead in vain.
Felt pity enter, and sustain'd her part.
Son of Laertes! (then the queen began)
Oh much-enduring, much experienced man!
Haste to thy vessel on the sea-beat shore,
Unload thy treasures, and the galley moor;
Then bring thy friends, secure from future harms,
And in our grottoes stow thy spoils and arms.
She said. Obedient to her high command
I quit the place, and hasten to the strand.
My sad companions on the beach I found,
Their wistful eyes in floods of sorrow drown'd.
As from fresh pastures and the dewy field
(When loaded cribs their evening banquet yield)
The lowing herds return; around them throng
With leaps and bounds their late imprison'd young,
Leave here the man who dares his prince desert,
Leave to repentance and his own sad heart,
To guard the ship. Seek we the sacred shades
Of Circe's palace, where Ulysses leads.
This with one voice declared, the rising train Left the black vessel by the murmuring main. Shame touch'd Eurylochus's alter'd breast,
He fear'd my threats, and follow'd with the rest. 530
Meanwhile the goddess, with indulgent cares
And social joys, the late transform'd repairs;
The bath, the feast, their fainting soul renews;
Rich in refulgent robes, and dropping balmy dews:
Brightening with joy, their eager eyes behold
Each other's face, and each his story told;
Thea gushing tears the narrative confound,
And with their sobs the vaulted roof resound.
When hush'd their passion, thus the goddess cries:
Ulysses, taught by labours to be wise,
Let this short memory of grief suffice.
To me are known the various woes ye bore,
In storms by sea, in perils on the shore;
Forget whatever was in Fortune's power,
And share the pleasures of this genial hour.
Such be your minds as ere ye left your coast,
Or learn'd to sorrow for a country lost.
Exiles and wanderers now, where'er ye go
Too faithful memory renews your woe;
The cause removed, habitual griefs remain,
And the soul saddens by the use of pain.
Her kind entreaty moved the general breast;
Tired with long toil, we willing sunk to rest.
We plied the banquet, and the bowl we crown'd,
Till the full circle of the year came round,
But when the seasons, following in their train,
Brought back the months, the days, and hours again;
As from a lethargy at once they rise,
And urge their chief with animating cries.
Is this, Ulysses, our inglorious lot?
And is the name of Ithaca forgot?
Shall never the dear land in prospect rise,
Or the loved palace glitter in our eyes?
Melting I heard; yet till the sun's decline
Prolong'd the feast, and quaff'd the rosy wine:
But when the shades came on at evening hour,
And all lay slumbering in the dusky bower;
I came a suppliant to fair Circe's bed,
The tender moment seized, and thus I said:
Be mindful, goddess! of thy promise made;
Must sad Ulysses ever be delay'd?
Around their lord my sad companions mourn,
Each breast beats homeward, anxious to return:
If but a moment parted from thy eyes,
These to the rest; but to the seer must bleed
A sable ram, the pride of all thy breed.
These solemn vows and holy offerings paid
To all the phantom nations of the dead,
560 Be next thy care the sable sheep to place
Full o'er the pit, and hellward turn their face:
But from the infernal rite thine eye withdraw,
And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe.
Sudden shall skim along the dusky glades
Thin airy shoals, and visionary shades.
Then give command the sacrifice to haste,
Let the flay'd victims in the flames be cast,
And sacred vows and mystic song applied
To grisly Pluto and his gloomy bride.
570 Wide o'er the pool thy falchion waved around
Shall drive the spectres from forbidden ground:
The sacred draught shall all the dead forbear,
Till awful from the shades arise the seer.
Let him, oraculous, the end, the way,
The turns of all thy future fate, display,
Thy pilgrimage to come, and remnant of thy day.
So speaking, from the ruddy orient shone
The morn, conspicuous on her golden throne.
The goddess with a radiant tunic dress'd
580 My limbs, and o'er me cast a silken vest.
Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies.
Go then (she cried,) ah go! yet think not I,
Not Circe, but the Fates, your wish deny.
Ah hope not yet to breathe thy native air!
Far other journey first demands thy care:
To tread the uncomfortable paths beneath,
And view the realms of darkness and of death.
There seek the Theban bard, deprived of sight;
Within, irradiate with prophetic light;
To whom Persephonè, entire and whole,
Gave to retain the unseparated soul:
The rest are forms of empty ether made:
Impassive semblance, and a flitting shade.
Struck at the word, my very heart was dead:
Pensive I sate; my tears bedew'd the bed;
To hate the light and life my soul begun,.
And saw that all was grief beneath the sun.
Composed at length, the gushing tears suppress'd,
And my toss'd limbs now wearied into rest,
How shall I tread (I cried) ah, Circe; say,
The dark descent, and who shall guide the way?
Can living eyes behold the realms below?
What bark to waft me, and what wind to blow?
Thy fated road (the magic power replied)
Divine Ulysses! asks no mortal guide.
Rear but the mast, the spacious sail display,
The northern winds shall wing thee on thy way.
Soon shalt thou reach old Ocean's utmost ends,
Where to the main the shelving shore descends;
The barren trees of Proserpine's black woods,
Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods :
There fix thy vessel in the lonely bay,
And enter there the kingdoms void of day:
Where Phlegethon's loud torrents, rushing down,
Hiss in the flaming gulf of Acheron;
And where, slow rolling from the Stygian bed,
Cocytus' lamentable waters spread :
Where the dark rock o'erhangs the infernal lake,
And mingling streams eternal murmurs make.
First draw thy falchion, and on every side
Trench the black earth a cubit long and wide:
To all the shades around libations pour,
Long flowing robes, of purest white, array
The nymph, that added lustre to the day:
A tiar wreath'd her head with many a fold;
Her waist was circled with a zone of gold.
Forth issuing then, from place to place I flew ;
Rouse man by man, and animate my crew.
Rise, rise, my mates! 'tis Circe gives command:
Our journey calls us; haste, and quit the land.
All rise and follow, yet depart not all,
590 For Fate decreed one wretched man to fall.
A youth there was, Elpenor was he named,
Not much for sense, nor much for courage famed;
The youngest of our band, a vulgar soul,
Born but to banquet, and to drain the bowl.
He, hot and careless, on a turret's height
With sleep repair'd the long debauch of night:
The sudden tumult stirr'd him where he lay,
And down he hasten', but forgot the way;
Full headlong from the roof the sleeper fell,
And snapp'd the spinal joint and waked in hell.
The rest crowd round me with an eager look,
I met them with a sigh, and thus bespoke:
Already, friends! ye think your toils are o'er,
Your hopes already touch your native shore :
Alas! far otherwise the nymph declares,
Far other journey first demands our cares;
To tread the uncomfortable paths beneath,
The dreary realms of darkness and of death;
To seek Tiresias' awful shade below,
610 And thence our fortunes and our fates to know.
My sad companions heard in deep despair :
Frantic they tore their manly growth of hair; 680
To earth they fell: the tears began to rain;
But tears in mortal miseries are vain.
Sadly they fared along the sea-beat shore;
Still heaved their hearts, and still their eyes ran
o'er.
And o'er the ingredients strew the hallow'd flour:
New wine and milk, with honey temper'd, bring,
And living water from the crystal spring.
The ready victims at our bark we found,
The sable ewe and ram, together bound.
Then the wan shades and feeble ghosts implore, 620 For swift as thought the goddess had been there,
With promised offerings on thy native shore;
A barren cow, the stateliest of the isle,
And, heap'd with various wealth, a blazing pile:
And thence had glided, viewless as the air:
The paths of gods what mortal can survey?
Who eyes their motion? who shall trace their way?
BOOK XI.
ARGUMENT.
The Descent into Hell.
When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts, Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts: Fair pensive youths, and soft enamour'd maids: And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades; Ulysses continues his narration. How he arrived at Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain the land of the Cimmerians, and what ceremonies he Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train: performed to invoke the dead. The manner of his These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground, descent, and the apparition of the shades: his conver-And all the dire assembly shriek'd around. sation with Elpenor, and with Tiresias, who informs Astonish'd at the sight, aghast I stood, him in a prophetic manner of his fortunes to come. And a cold fear ran shivering through my blood; He meets his mother Anticlea, from whom he learns Straight I command the sacrifice to haste, the state of his family. He sees the shades of the ancient heroines, afterwards of the heroes, and converses in particular with Agamemnon and Achilles. Ajax keeps at a sullen distance, and disdains to answer him. He then beholds Tityus, Tantalus, Sysiphus, Hercules; till he is deterred from further curiosity by the apparition of horrid spectres, and the cries of the wicked in torments.
Now to the shores we bend, a mournful train,
Climb the tall bark, and launch into the main :
At once the mast we rear, at once unbind
The spacious sheet, and stretch it to the wind:
Then pale and pensive stand, with cares oppress'd,
And solemn horror saddens every breast.
A freshning breeze the magic power* supplied,
While the winged vessel flew along the tide;
Our oars we shipp'd: all day the swelling sails
Full from the guiding pilot catch'd the gales.
Straight the flay'd victims to the flames are cast,
And mutter'd vows, and mystic song applied
To grisly Pluto, and his gloomy bride.
Now swift I waved my falchion o'er the blood;
Back started the pale throngs, and trembling stood.
Round the black trench the gore untasted flows,
Till awful from the shades Tiresias rose.
There wandering through the gloom I first survey'd,
New to the realms of death, Elpenor's shade:
His cold remains all naked to the sky
On distant shores unwept, unburied lie.
Sad at the sight I stand, deep fix'd in woe:
And ere I spoke the tears began to flow.
O say what angry power Elpenor led
To glide in shades, and wander with the dead?
How could thy soul, by realms and seas disjoin'd,
Outfly the nimble sail, and leave the lagging wind?
The ghost replied: To hell my doom I owe,
10 Dæmous accurst, dire ministers of woe!
My feet, through wine unfaithful to their weight,
Betray'd me tumbling from a towery height;
Staggering I reel'd, and as I reel'd I fell,
Lux'd the neck-joint-my soul descends to hell.
But lend me aid, I now conjure thee lend,
By the soft tie and sacred name of friend!
By thy fond consort! by thy father's cares!
By loved Telemachus's blooming years!
For well I know that soon the heavenly powers
Will give thee back to day, and Circe's shores;
21 There pious on my cold remains attend,
Now sunk the sun from his aërial height,
And o'er the shaded billows rush'd the night:
When lo! we reach'd old Ocean's utmost bounds,
Where rocks controul his waves with ever-during
There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, [mounds
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells;
The sun ne'er views the uncomfortable seats,
When radiant he advances, or retreats:
Unhappy race! whom endless night invades,
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades.
The ship we moor on these obscure abodes:
Disbark the sheep, an offering to the gods;
And, hellward bending, o'er the beach descry
The doleful passage to the infernal sky.
The victims, vow'd to each Tartarean power
Eurylochus and Dermides bore.
Here open'd hell, all hell I here implored,
And from the scabbard drew the shining sword:
And trenching the black earth on every side,
A cavern form'd, a cubit long and wide.
New wine, with honey-temper'd milk, we bring,
Then living waters from the crystal spring:
O'er these was strew'd the consecrated flour,
And on the surface shone the holy store.
Now the wan shades we hail, the infernal gods,
To speed our course, and waft us o'er the floods :
So shall a barren heifer from the stall
Beneath the knife upon your altars fall;
So in our palace, at our safe return,
Rich with unnumber'd gifts the pile shall burn;
So shall a ram, the largest of the breed,
Black as these regions, to Tiresias bleed.
Thus solemn rites and holy vows we paid
To all the phantom nations of the dead.
Then died the sheep: a purple torrent flow'd,
And all the caverns smoked with streaming blood.
There call to mind thy poor departed friend!
The tribute of a tear is all I crave,
And the possession of a peaceful grave.
But if, unheard, in vain compassion plead,
Revere the gods, the gods avenge the dead!
A tomb along the watery margin raise,
The tomb with manly arms and trophies grace,
To show posterity Elpenor was.
30 There high in air, memorial of my name,
Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.
To whom with tears: These rites, oh mournful
shade,
Due to thy ghost, shall to thy ghost be paid.
Still as I spoke the phantom seem'd to moan, 100
Tear follow'd tear, and groan succeeded groan.
But, as my waving sword the blood surrounds,
The shade withdrew, and mutter'd empty sounds.
There as the wondrous visions I survey'd,
40 All pale ascends my royal mother's shade:
A queen, to Troy she saw our legions pass;
Now a thin form is all Anticlea was!
Struck at the sight I melt with filial woe,
And down my cheek the pious sorrows flow:
Yet as I shook my falchion o'er the blood,
Regardless of her son the parent stood.
When lo! the mighty Theban I behold;
To guide his steps he bore a staff of gold:
Awful he trod! majestic was his look!
And from his holy lips these accents broke:
Why, mortal, wanderest thou from cheerful day,
To tread the downward melancholy way?
What angry gods to these dark regions led
Thee yet alive, companion of the dead?
But sheath thy poniard, while my tongue relates
Heaven's steadfast purpose, and thy future fates.
While yet he spoke, the prophet I obey'd,
And in the scabbard plunged the glittering blade.
Eager he quaff'd the gore, and then express'd
Dark things to come, the counsels of his breast:
Weary of light, Ulysses here explores,
A prosperous voyage to his native shores;
But know-by me unerring Fates disclose
New trains of dangers, and new scenes of woes;
I see, I see, thy bark by Neptune toss'd,
For injured Cyclops, and his eye-ball lost!
Yet to thy woes the god decree an end,
If heaven you please; and how to please attend!
Where on Trinacrian rocks the ocean roars,
Graze numerous herds along the verdant shores.
Though hunger press, yet fly the dangerous prey,
The herds are sacred to the god of day,
Who all surveys with his extensive eye
Above, below, on earth, and in the sky!
Rob not the god; and so propitious gales
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy sails:
But, if his herds ye seize, beneath the waves
I see thy friends o'erwhelm'd in liquid graves!
The direful wreck Ulysses scarce survives!
Ulysses at his country scarce arrives!
Strangers thy guides! nor there thy labours end,
New foes arise, domestic ills attend!
There foul adulterers to thy bride resort,
And lordly gluttons riot in thy court.
There the wide sea with all his billows raves!
Or (since to dust proud Troy submits her towers)
130 Comest thou a wanderer from the Phrygian shores ?
Or say, since honour call'd thee to the field,
Hast thou thy Ithaca, thy bride, beheld?
Say, what distemper gave thee to the dead?
Has life's fair lamp declined by slow decays,
Or swift expired it in a sudden blaze?
Say, if my sire, good old Laërtes, lives?
If yet Telemachus, my son, survives?
Say, by his rule is my dominion awed,
Or crush'd by traitors with an iron rod?
Say, if my spouse maintains her royal trust;
Though tempted, chaste, and obstinately just?
Or if no more her absent lord she wails,
But the false woman o'er the wife prevails :
Thus I, and thus the parent shade returns:
Thee, ever thee, thy faithful consort mourns:
Whether the night descends or day prevails,
Thee she by night, and thee by day bewails.
Thee in Telemachus thy realm obeys;
In sacred groves celestial rites he
pays,
And shares the banquet in superior state,
Graced with such honours as become the great.
160 Thy sire in solitude foments his care:
But vengeance hastes amain: These eyes behold
The deathful scene, princes on princes roll'd!
That done, a people far from sea explore,
Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billow roar,
Or saw gay vessel stem the watery plain,
A painted wonder flying on the main.
Bear on thy back an oar: with strange amaze
A shepherd meeting thee, the oar surveys,
And names a van: there fix it on the plain,
To calm the god that holds the watery reign;
A threefold offering to his altar bring,
A bull, a ram, a boar; and hail the ocean king.
But, home return'd, to each ethereal power
Slay the due victim in the genial hour:
So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days,
And steal thyself from life by slow decays;
Unknown to pain, in age resign thy breath:
When late stern Neptune points the shaft with death:
To the dark grave retiring as to rest,
Thy people blessing, by thy people bless'd!
Unerring truths, oh man my lips relate;
This is thy life to come, and this is fate.
To whom unmoved: If this the gods prepare,
What heaven ordains, the wise with courage bear.
But say, why wander on the lonely strands,
Unmindful of her son, Anticlea stands?
Why to the ground she bends her downcast eye?
Why is she silent while her son is nigh?
The latent cause, oh sacred seer, reveal!
Nor this, replies the seer, will I conceal.
Know, to the spectres, that thy beverage taste,
The scenes of life recur, and actions past:
The court is joyless for thou art not there!
No costly carpets raise his hoary head,
No rich embroidery shines to grace his bed ;
Even when keen winter freezes in the skies,
Rank'd with his slaves on earth the monarch lies:
Deep are his sighs, his visage pale, his dress
The garb of woe and babit of distress.
And when the autumn takes his annual round,
The leafy honours scattering on the ground;
170 Regardless of his years, abroad he lies,
His bed the leaves, his canopy the skies.
Thus cares on cares his painful days consume,
And bow his age with sorrow to the tomb!
For thee, my son, I wept my life away;
For thee through hell's eternal dungeons stray.
Nor came my fate by lingering pains and slow,
Nor bent the silver-shafted queen her bow;
No dire disease bereaved me of my breath;
Thou, thou, my son, wert my disease and death,
180 Unkindly with my love my son conspired,
For thee I lived, for absent thee expired.
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