110

O fly the dreadful sight! expand thy sails,
Ply the strong oar, and catch the nimble gales;
Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes,
Tremendous pest, abhorr'd by man and gods!
Hideous her voice, and with less terrors roar
The whelps of lions in the midnight hour.
Twelve feet, deform'd and foul, the fiend dispreads;
Six horrid necks she rears, and six terrific heads;
Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of teeth:
Jaggy they stand, the gaping den of death;
Her parts obscene the raging billows hide;
Her bosom terribly o'erlooks the tide.
When stung with hunger she embroils the flood,
The sea-dog and the dolphin are her food;
She makes the huge leviathan her prey,
And all the monsters of the watery way;
The swiftest racer of the azure plain

Here fills her sails and spreads her oars in vain :
Fell Scylla rises, in her fury roars,

A: once six mouths expands, at once six men de

yours.

Rob not the god! and so propitious gales
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy sails;
But if thy impious hands the flocks destroy,
The gods, the gods avenge it and ye die!
'Tis thine alone (thy friends and navy lost)
Through tedious toils to view thy native coast
She ceas'd: and now arose the morning ray;
Swift to her dome the goddess held her way.
Then to my mates I measured back the plain,
Climb'd the tail bark, and rush'd into the main:
Then bending to the stroke, their oars they drew
To their broad breasts, and swift the galley flew.
Up sprung a brisker breeze: with freshening gales,
The friendly goddess stretch'd the swelling sails:
We drop our oars; at ease the pilot guides;
120 The vessel light along the level glides.
When, rising sad and slow, with pensive look,
Thus to the melancholy train I spoke:

Oh friends, oh ever partners of my woes,
Attend while I what heaven foredooms disclose.
Hear all! Fate hangs o'er all; on you it lies
To live or perish! to be safe, be wise!

In flowery meads the sportive Sirens play,
Touch the soft lyre, and tune the vocal lay;
Me, me alone, with fetters firmly bound,
The gods allow to hear the dangerous sound.
130 Hear and obey: if freedom I demand,

Close by, a rock of less enormous height
Breaks the wild waves, and forms a dangerous strait;
Full on its crown a fig's green branches rise,
And shoot a leafy forest to the skies;
Beneath, Charybdis holds her boisterous reign
'Midst roaring whirlpools, and absorbs the main:
Thrice in her gulfs the boiling seas subside,
Thrice in dire thunders she refunds the tide.
Oh, if thy vessel plough the direful waves
When seas retreating roar within her caves,
Ye perish all! though he who rules the main
Lend his strong aid, his aid he lends in vain.
Ah, shun the horrid gulf! by Scylla fly,
'Tis better six to lose, than all to die.

I then : O nymph, propitious to my prayer,
Goddess divine, my guardian power, declare,
Is the foul fiend from human vengeance freed?
Or, if I rise in arms, can Scylla bleed?

Then she: Oh worn by toils, oh broke in fight,
Still are new toils and war thy dire delight?
Will martial flames for ever fire thy mind,
And never, never, be to heaven resign'd?
How vain thy efforts to avenge the wrong!
Deathless the pest! impenetrably strong!
Furious and fell, tremendous to behold!
Even with a look she withers all the bold!
She mocks the weak attempts of human might:
Oh fly her rage! thy conquest is thy flight.
If but to seize thy arms thou make delay,
Again the fury vindicates her prey,

150

180

190

200

Be every fetter strain'd, be added band to band.
While yet I speak the winged galley flies
And lo! the Siren shores like mists arise.
Sunk were at once the winds: the air above,
And waves below at once forgot to move :
Some dæmon calm'd the air, and smooth'd the deep,
Hush'd the loud winds, and charm'd the waves to sleep.
Now every sail we furl, each oar we ply;
Lash'd by the stroke, the frothy waters fly.

210

140 The ductile wax with busy hands I mould,
And cleft in fragments, and the fragments roll'd:
The aërial region now grew warm with day,
The wax dissolved beneath the burning ray;
Then every ear I barr'd against the strain,
And from access of phrenzy lock'd the brain.
Now round the masts my mates the fetters roll'd,
And bound me limb by limb with fold on fold.
Then bending to the stroke, the active train
Plunge all at once their oars, and cleave the main.
While to the shore the rapid vessel flies,
Our swift approach the Siren choir descries;
Celestial music warbles from their tongue,
And thus the sweet deluders tune the song:
Oh stay, oh pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay!
Oh cease thy course, and listen to our lay!
Blest is the man ordain'd our voice to hear,
The song instructs the soul, and charms the ear.
Approach! thy soul shall into raptures rise!
Approach! and learn new wisdom from the wise!
We know whate'er the kings of mighty name
Achieved at Ilion in the field of fame;
Whate'er beneath the sun's bright journey lies, 230
Oh stay, and learn new wisdom from the wise!

Her six mouths yawn, and six are snatch'd away.
From her foul womb Cratais gave to air
This dreadful pest! To her direct thy prayer,
To curb the monster in her dire abodes,
And guard thee through the tumult of the floods. 159
Thence to Trinacria's shore you bend your way,
Where graze thy herds, illustrious source of day!
Seven herds, seven flocks, enrich the sacred plains,
Each herd, each flock, full fifty heads contains:
The wondrous kind a length of age survey,
By breed increase not, nor by death decay.
Two sister goddesses possess the plain,
The constant guardians of the woolly train:
Lampetie fair, and Phaethusa young,
From Phoebus and the bright Neæra sprung:
Here, watchful o'er the flocks, in shady bowers
And flowery meads they waste the joyous hours.

170

220

Thus the sweet charmers warbled o'er the main;
My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain;
I give the sign, and struggle to be free:
Swift row my mates, and shoot along the sea;
New chains they add, and rapid urge the way,
Till, dying off, the distant sounds decay:
Then, scudding swiftly from the dangerous ground,
The deafen'd ear unlock'd, the chains unbound

Now all at once tremendous scenes unfold;
Thunder'd the deeps, the smoking billows roll'd!
Tumultuous waves embroil the bellowing flood,
All trembling, deafen'd, and aghast we stood!
No more the vessel plough'd the dreadful wave,
Fear seized the mighty, and unnerved the brave;
Each dropt his oar: but swift from man to man
With looks serene I turn'd, and thus began:
Oh friends! oh often tried in adverse storms!
With ills familiar in more dreadful forms!
Deep in the dire Cyclopean den you lay,
Yet safe return'd-Ulysses led the way,
Learn courage hence, and in my care confide:
Lo! still the same Ulysses is your guide.
Attend my words! your oars incessant ply;
Strain every nerve, and bid the vessel fly.
If from yon justling rocks and wavy war
Jove safety grants, he grants it to your care.
And thou, whose guiding hand directs our way,
Pilot, attentive listen and obey!

240 In the wide dungeon she devours her food,

And the flesh trembles while she churns the blood.
Worn as I am with griefs, with care decay'd,
Never, I never, scene so dire survey'd!

My shivering blood, congeal'd, forgot to flow; 310
Aghast I stood, a monument of woe!

Now from the rocks the rapid vessel flies,
And the hoarse din like distant thunder dies;
To Sol's bright isle our voyage we pursue,
And now the glittering mountains rise to view.
250 There sacred to the radiant god of day,
Graze the fair herds, the flocks promiscuous stray:
Then suddenly was heard along the main
To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train.
Straight to my anxious thoughts the sound convey'd
The words of Circe and the Theban shade;
Warn'd by their awful voice these shores to shun,
With cautious fears oppress'd, I thus begun.

259
Bear wide thy course, nor plough those angry waves
Where rolls yon smoke, yon tumbling ocean raves:
Steer by the higher rock; lest whirl'd around
We sink, beneath the circling eddy drown'd.

While yet I speak, at once their oars they seize,
Stretch to the stroke, and brush the working seas.
Cautious the name of Scylla I suppress'd;
That dreadful sound had chill'd the boldest breast.
Meantime, forgetful of the voice divine,

All dreadful bright my limbs in armour shine;
High on the deck I take my dangerous stand,
Two glittering javelins lighten in my hand:
Prepared to whirl the whizzing spear I stay,
Till the fell fiend arise to seize her prey.
Around the dungeon, studious to behold
The hideous pest, my labouring eyes I roll'd;
In vain! the dismal dungeon, dark as night,
Veils the dire monster, and confounds the sight.

.

319

O friends! oh ever exercised in care!
Hear heaven's commands, and reverence what ye
hear!

To fly these shores the prescient Theban shade
And Circe warns! O be their voice obey'd:
Some mighty woe relentless heaven forbodes:
Fly these dire regions, and revere the gods!
While yet I spoke a sudden sorrow ran
Through every breast, and spread from man to man,
Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began:

330

340

O cruel thou! some fury sure has steel'd
That stubborn soul, by toil untaught to yield!
270 From sleep debarr'd, we sink from woes to woes;
And cruel, enviest thou a short repose?
Still must we restless rove, new seas explore,
The sun descending, and so near the shore?
And lo! the night begins her gloomy reign,
And doubles all the terrors of the main.
Oft in the dead of night loud winds arise,
Lash the wild surge, and bluster in the skies;
Or should the fierce south-west his rage display,
And toss with rising storms the watery way,
280 Though gods descend from heaven's aerial plain
To lend us aid, the gods descend in vain ;
Then while the night displays her awful shade,
Sweet time of slumber! be the night obey'd!
Haste ye to land! and when the morning ray
Sheds her bright beams, pursue the destined way. 350
A sudden joy in every bosom rose:
So will'd some dæmon, minister of woes!

Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep dismay,
We bend our course, and stem the desperate way;
Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.
When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves;
They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise,
Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze;
Eternal mists obscure the aërial plain,
And high above the rock she spouts the main:
When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides,
She drains the ocean with the refluent tides:
The rock rebellows with a thundering sound;
Deep, wondrous deep, below appears the ground.
Struck with despair, with trembling hearts we
view'd

290

To whom with grief-O swift to be undone,
Constrain'd I act what wisdom bids me shun.
But yonder herds and yonder flocks forbear;
Attest the heavens, and call the gods to hear:
Content, an innocent repast display,
By Circe given, and fly the dangerous prey.

360

Thus I and while to shore the vessel flies,
With hands uplifted they attest the skies;
Then where a fountain's gurgling waters play,
They rush to land, and end in feasts the day:
They feed; they quaff: and now (their hunger fled)
Sigh for their friends devour'd, and mourn the dead;
Nor cease the tears till each in slumber shares
A sweet forgetfulness of human cares.

Now far the night advanced her gloomy reign,
And setting stars roll'd down the azure plain:
When, at the voice of Jove, wild whirlwinds rise,
And clouds and double darkness veil the skies; 370
The moon, the stars, the bright ethereal host
Seem as extinct, and all their splendours lost;

O friends, be wise! nor dare the flocks destroy
Of these fair pastures: if ye touch, ye die.
Warn'd by the high command of heaven, be awed;
Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the god!

That god who spreads the radiant beams of light,
And views wide earth and heaven's unmeasured
height.

389

And now the moon had run her monthly round,
The south-east blustering with a dreadful sound:
Unhurt the beeves, untouch'd the woolly train
Low through the grove, or range the flowery plain:
Then fail'd our food; then fish we make our prey,
Or fowl that, screaming, haunt the watery way.
Till now, from sea or flood no succour found,
Famine and meagre want besieged us round.
Pensive and pale from grove to grove I stray'd,
From the loud storms to find a sylvan shade;
There o'er my hands the living wave I pour;
And heaven and heaven's immortal thrones adore,
To calm the roarings of the stormy main,
And grant me peaceful to my realms again.
Then o'er my eyes the gods soft slumber shed,
While thus Eurylochus arising said:

O friends, a thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread;
But dreadful most, when, by a slow decay,
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away.
Why cease ye then to implore the powers above,
And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove?
Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey?
Arise unanimous; arise and slay:
And if the gods ordain a safe return,

To Phœbus shrines shall rise, and altars burn.
But, should the powers that o'er mankind preside,
Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide,
Better to rush at once to shades below,
Than linger life away, and nourish woe!

450

Aims the red bolt, and hurls the writhen brand!
Slain are those herds which I with pride survey,
When through the ports of heaven I pour the day
Or deep in ocean plunge the burning ray.
Vengeance, ye gods! or I the skies forego,
And bear the lamp of heaven to shades below.
To whom the thundering Power: O source of day!
Whose radiant lamp adorns the azure way,
Still may thy beams through heaven's bright por-
tals rise,

The joy of earth, and glory of the skies;
Lo! my red arm I bare, my thunders guide,
To dash the offenders in the whelming tide
To fair Calypso, from the bright abodes,
Hermes convey'd these counsels of the gods
Meantime from man to man my tongue exclaims,
My wrath is kindled, and my soul in flames. 461
In vain! I view perform'd the direful deed,
Beeves, slain by heaps, along the ocean bleed.

Now heaven gave signs of wrath; along the ground
Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound

469

400 Roar'd the dead limbs; the burning entrails groan'd.
Six guilty days my wretched mates employ
In impious feasting, and unhallow'd joy;
The seventh arose, and now the sire of gods
Rein'd the rough storms, and calm'd the tossing floods:
With speed the bark we climb; the spacious sails
Loosed from the yards invite the impelling gales.
Past sight of shore, along the surge we bound,
And all above is sky, and ocean all around;
When lo! a murky cloud the Thunderer forms
410 Full o'er our heads, and blackens heaven with storms.
Night dwells o'er all the deep: and now outflies
The gloomy West, and whistles in the skies.
The mountain-billows roar! the furious blast
Howls o'er the shroud, and rends it from the mast;
The mast gives way, and crackling as it bends, 481
Tears up the deck; and all at once descends;
The pilot by the tumbling ruin slain,

Thus he the beeves around securely stray,
When swift to ruin they invade the prey;
They seize, they kill!-but for the rite divine,
The barley fail'd, and for libations wine.
Swift from the oak they strip the shady pride;
And verdant leaves the flowery cake supplied.
With prayer they now address the ethereal train,
Slay the selected beeves, and flay the slain :
The thighs, with fat involved, divide with art,
Strew'd o'er with morsels cut from every part.
Water, instead of wine, is brought in urns,
And pour'd profanely as the victim burns.
The thighs thus offer'd, and the entrails dress'd,
They roast the fragments, and prepare the feast. 430
"Twas then soft slumber fled my troubled brain;
Back to the bark I speed along the main.
When lo! an odour from the feast exhales,
Spreads o'er the coast, and scents the tainted gales;
A chilly fear congeal'd my vital blood,
And thus, obtesting heaven, I mourn'd aloud.
O sire of men and gods, immortal Jove!
O all ye blissful powers that reign above!

Dash'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main.
Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll,

420 And forky lightnings flash from pole to pole:
Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims,
Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapt in flames:
Full on the bark it fell; now high, now low,
Toss'd and re-toss'd, it reel'd beneath the blow; 490
At once into the main the crew it shook:
Sulphureous odours rose, and smouldering smoke.
Like fowl that haunt the floods, they sink, they rise,
Now lost, now seen, with shrieks and dreadful cries,
And strive to gain the bark; but Jove denies.
Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main
Rush'd with dire noise, and dash'd the sides in twain;
Again impetuous drove the furious blast,
Snapt the strong helm, and bore to sea the mast;
Firm to the mast with cords the helm I bind,
And ride aloft, to Providence resign'd,
Through tumbling billows and a war of wind,
Now sunk the West, and now a southern breeze
More dreadful than the tempest, lash'd the seas.

500

For on the rocks it bore where Scylla raves,
And dire Charybdis rolls her thundering waves.
All night I drove; and at the dawn of day,
Fast by the rocks beheld the desperate way:
Just when the sea within her gulfs subsides,
And in the roaring whirlpools rush the tides.
Swift from the float I vaulted with a bound,
The lofty fig-tree seized, and clung around:
So to the beam the bat tenacious clings,
And pendant round it clasps his leathern wings.
High in the air the tree its boughs display'd,
And o'er the dungeon cast a dreadful shade:
All unsustain'd between the wave and sky,
Beneath my feet the whirling billows fly.
What time the judge forsakes the noisy bar,
To take repast, and stills the wordy war,
Charybdis, rumbling from her inmost caves,
The mast refunded on her refluent waves.
Swift from the tree, the floating mast to gain,
Sudden I dropp'd amidst the flashing main;
Once more undaunted on the ruin rode,
And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood.
Unseen I pass'd by Scylla's dire abodes;
So Jove decreed (dread sire of men and gods.)
Then nine long days I plough'd the calmer seas,
Heaved by the surge, and wafted by the breeze.
Weary and wet the Ogygian shores I gain,
When the tenth sun descended to the main.
There, in Calypso's ever-fragrant bowers,
Refresh'd I lay, and joy beguiled the hours.
My following fates to thee, O king, are known,
And the bright partner of thy royal throne.
Enough: in misery can words avail?
And what so tedious as a twice-told tale?

BOOK XIII.

ARGUMENT.

The Arrival of Ulysses in Ithaca.

With wine unmix'd (an honour due to age,
To cheer the grave, and warm the poet's rage ;)
Though labour'd gold and many a dazzling vest
Lie heap'd already for our godlike guest;
Without new treasures let him not remove,
510 Large, and expressive of the public love :
Each peer a tripod, each a vase bestow,
A general tribute which the state shall owe.
This sentence pleased: then all their steps ad-
dress'd

To seperate mansions and retire to rest.

Now did the rosy-finger'd morn arise,
And shed her sacred light along the skies.
Down to the haven and the ships in haste
They bore the treasures, and in safety placed.
520 The king himself the vases ranged with care;
Then bade his followers to the feast repair.
A victim ox beneath the sacred hand
Of great Alcinóüs falls, and stains the sand.
To Jove the Eternal (power above all powers!
Who wings the wind, and darkens heaven with
showers)

530

The flames ascend: till evening they prolong
The rites more sacred made by heavenly song:
For in the midst, with public honours graced
Thy lyre divine, Demodocus! was placed.
All, but Ulysses, heard with fix'd delight:
He sate, and eyed the sun, and wish'd the night:
Slow seem'd the sun to move, the hours to roll,
His native home deep-imaged in his soul.
As the tired ploughman spent with stubborn toil,
Whose oxen long have torn the furrow'd soil,
Sees with delight the sun's declining ray,
When home with feeble knees he bends his way
To late repast, (the day's hard labour done,)
So to Ulysses welcome set the sun;

Then instant to Alcinous and the rest

20

30

40

(The Scheran states) he turn'd and thus address'd; O thou the first in merit and command! And you the peers and princes of the land! May every joy be yours! nor this the least, Ulysses takes leave of Alcinous and Arcte, and embarks When due libation shall have crown'd the feast, 50 in the evening. Next morning the ship arrives at Ithaca; where the sailors, as Ulysses is yet sleeping, Safe to my home to send your happy guest. lay him on the shore with all his treasures. On their Complete are now the bounties you have given, return, Neptune changes their ship into a rock. In Be all those bounties but confirm'd by heaven! the meantime Ulysses awaking, knows not his native So may I find, when all my wanderings cease, Ithaca, by reason of a mist which Pallas had cast My consort blameless, and my friends in peace. round him. He breaks into loud lamentations; till On you be every bliss; and every day, the goddess appearing to him in the form of a shep-In home felt joys, delighted roll away: herd, discovers the country to him, and points out the Yourselves, your wives, your long-descending race, particular places. He then tells a feigned story of his adventures, upon which she manifests herself, and May every god enrich with every grace! they consult together of the measures to be taken Sure fix'd on virtue may your nation stand, to destroy the suitors. To conceal his return, and And public evil never touch the land! disguise his person the more effectually, she changes His words well weigh'd, the general voice aphim into the figure of an old beggar.

BOOK XIII.

HE ceased; but left so pleasing on their ear
His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear.
A pause of silence hush'd the shady rooms:
The grateful conference then the king resumes.
Whatever toils the great Ulysses pass'd,
Beneath this happy roof they end at last;
No longer now from shore to shore to roam,
Smooth seas and gentle winds invite him home.
But hear me, princes! whom these walls enclose,
For whom my chanter sings, and goblet flows.

proved

Benign, and instant his dismission moved.
The monarch to Pontonous gave the sign,
To fill the goblet high with rosy wine:
Great Jove the Father, first (he cried) implore;
Then send the stranger to his native shore.

The luscious wine the obedient herald brought:
Around the mansion flow'd the purple draught:
Each from his seat to each immortal pours,
Whom glory circles in the Olympian bowers.
Ulysses sole with air majestic stands,
The bowl presenting to Aretè's hands;

Then thus: O queen, farewell! be still possess'd 10 Of dear remembrance, blessing still and bless'd.

60

70

Till age and death shall gently call thee hence,
(Sure fate of every mortal excellence!)
Farewell! and joys successive ever spring
To thee, to thine, the people, and the king!

Thus he; then, parting, prints the sandy shore
To the fair port: a herald march'd before,
Sent by Alcinous; of Aretè's train

Three chosen maids attend him to the main;
This does a tunic and white vest convey,
A various casket that, of rich inlay,

And bread and wine the third. The cheerful mates
Safe in the hollow poop dispose the cates :
Upon the deck soft painted robes they spread,
With linen cover'd, for the hero's bed.
He climb'd the lofty stern; then gently press'd
The swelling couch and lay composed to rest.
Now placed in order, the Phæacian train
Their cables loose, and launch into the main:
At once they bend, and strike their equal oars,
And leave the sinking hills and lessening shores.
While on the deck the chief in silence lies,
And pleasing slumbers steal upon his eyes.
As fiery coursers in the rapid race

Urged by fierce drivers through the dusty space,
Toss their high heads, and scour along the plain;
So mounts the bounding vessel o'er the main.
Back to the stern the parted billows flow,
And the black ocean foams and roars below.
Thus with spread sails the winged galley flies;
Less swift an eagle cuts the liquid skies;
Divine Ulysses was her sacred load,
A man in wisdom equal to a god!
Much danger, long and mighty toils he bore,
In storms by sea, and combats on the shore:
All which soft sleep now banish from his breast,
Wrapt in a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest.

But when the morning star with early ray
Flamed in the front of heaven, and promised day;
Like distant clouds the mariner descries
Fair Ithaca's emerging hills arise.

80

Nor yet forgot old Ocean's dread supreme
The vengeance vow'd for eyeless Polypheme.
Before the throne of mighty Jove he stood;
And sought the secret counsels of the god.
Shall then no more, O sire of gods! be mine
The rights and honours of a power divine?
Scorn'd even by man, and (oh severe disgrace!) 150
By soft Phæacians, my degenerate race!
Against yon destined head in vain I swore,

And menaced vengeance, ere he reach'd his shore;
To reach his natal shore was thy decree;
Mild I obey'd, for who shall war with thee?
Behold him landed careless and asleep,
From all the eluded dangers of the deep;
90 Lo where he lies, amidst a shining store
Of brass, rich garments, and refulgent ore;
And bears triumphant to his native isle
A prize more worth than llion's noble spoil.
To whom the Father of the immortal powers,
Who swells the clouds, and gladdens earth with
showers:

100

160

This then I doom: to fix the gallant ship
A mark of vengeance on the sable deep;
To warn the thoughtless self-confiding train,
No more unlicensed thus to brave the main.
Full in their port a shady hill shall rise,
110 If such thy will.-We will it, Jove replies.
Even when with transport blackening all the strand,
The swarming people hail their ship to land,
Fix her for ever, a memorial stone:
Still let her seem to sail, and seem alone:
The trembling cloud shall see the sudden shade
Of whelming mountains overhang their head!
With that the god whose earthquakes rock the
ground,

Far from the town a spacious port appears,
Sacred to Phorcy's power, whose name it bears;
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds tempestuous to restrain;
Within the waves in softer murmurs glide,
And ships secure without their halsers ride.
High at the head, a branching olive grows,
And crowns the pointed cliffs with shady boughs.
Beneath a gloomy grotto's cool recess
Delights the Nereids of the neighbouring seas,
Where bowls and urns were form'd of living stone,
And massy beams in native marble shone;
On which the labours of the nymphs were roll'd,
Their webs divine of purple mix'd with gold.
Within the cave the clustering bees attend
Their waxen works, or from the roof depend.
Perpetual waters o'er the pavement glide:
Two marble doors unfold on either side;
Sacred the south, by which the gods descend;
But mortals enter at the northern end.
Thither they bent, and haul their ship to land,
(The crooked keel divides the yellow sand ;)
Ulysses, sleeping on his couch, they bore,
And gently placed him on the rocky shore.
His treasures next Alcinous' gifts, they laid
In the wild olive's unfrequented shade,
Secure from theft; then launch'd the bark again,
Resumed their oars,
and measured back the main.

130

180

190

Fierce to Phæacia cross'd the vast profound.
120 Swift as a swallow sweeps the liquid way,
The winged pinnace shot along the sea.
The god arrests her with a sudden stroke,
And roots her down, an everlasting rock.
Aghast the Scherians stand in deep surprise;
All press to speak, all question with their eyes.
What hands unseen the rapid bark restrain?
And yet it swims, or seems to swim, the main!
Thus they, unconscious of the deed divine:
Till great Alcinous rising own'd the sign.
Behold the long-predestined day! (he cries;)
O certain faith of ancient prophecies!
These ears have heard my royal sire disclose
A dreadful story, big with future woes;
How moved with wrath, that careless we convey 200
Promiscuous every guest to every bay,
Stern Neptune raged; and how by his command
Firm rooted in the surge a ship should stand,
(A monument of wrath ;) and mound on mound
Should hide our walls, or whelm beneath the ground.
The Fates have follow'd as declared the seer.
Be humbled, nations! and your monarch hear.
No more unlicensed brave the deeps; no more
With every stranger pass from shore to shore :

140