Nor think thyself exempt; that rosy prime
Must share the general doom of withering time:
To some new channel soon, the changeful tide
Of royal grace the offended queen may guide:
And her loved lord unplume thy towering pride.
Or were he dead, 'tis wisdom to beware;
Sweet blooms the prince beneath Apollo's care;
Your deeds with quick impartial eye surveys;
Potent to punish what he cannot praise.

180

100 For when to fate he bows, each Grecian dame
With just reproach were licensed to defame;
Should he, long honour'd in supreme command, 170
Want the last duties of a daughter's hand."
The fiction pleased; their loves I long elude,
The night still ravell'd what the day renew'd:
Three years successful in my art conceal'd,
My ineffectual fraud the fourth reveal'd:
Befriended by my own domestic spies,
The woof unwrought the suitor-train surprise.
From nuptial rites they now no more recede,
And fear forbids to falsify the brede.
My anxious parents urge a speedy choice,
And to their suffrage gain the filial voice.
For rule mature, Telemachus deplores,
His dome dishonour'd, and exhausted stores.—
But, stranger! as thy days seem full of fate,
Divide discourse, in turn thy birth relate:
Thy port asserts thee of distinguish'd race;
No poor unfather'd product of disgrace.
Princess! he cries, renew'd by your command,
The dear remembrance of my native land,
Of secret grief unseals the fruitful source:
And tears repeat their long-forgotten course!
So pays the wretch whom fate constrains to roam,
The dues of nature to his natal home!
But inward on my soul let sorrow prey,
Your sovereign will my duty bids obey.

Her keen reproach had reach'd the sovereign's ear.
Loquacious insolent! she cries, forbear; 110
To thee the purpose of my soul I told :
Venial discourse, unblamed with him to hold;
The storied labours of my wandering lord,
To soothe my grief he haply may record;
Yet him, my guest, thy venom'd rage hath stung;
Thy head shall pay the forfeit of thy tongue!
But thou on whom my palace cares depend,
Euronymé, regard the stranger-friend:
A seat, soft spread with furry spoils, prepare;
Due-distant for us both to speak and hear.

The menial fair obeys with duteous haste:
A seat adorn'd with furry spoils she placed:
Due-distant for discourse the hero sate;
When thus the sovereign from her chair of state:
Reveal, obsequious to my first demand,
Thy name, thy lineage, and thy natal land.
He thus: O queen! whose far-resounding fame
Is bounded only by the starry frame,
Consummate pattern of imperial sway,
Whose pious rule a warlike race obey!
In wavy gold thy summer vales are dress'd;
Thy autumns bend with copious fruit oppress'd:
With flocks and herds each grassy plain is stored;
And fish of every fin thy seas afford:

Their affluent joys the grateful realms confess,
And bless the Power that still delights to bless.
Gracious permit this prayer, imperial dame!
Forbear to know my lineage, or my name:
Urge not this breast to heave, these eyes to weep;
In sweet oblivion let my sorrows sleep!
My woes awaked will violate your ear;

And to this gay censorious train appear

A winy vapour melting in a tear.

120

Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil!
And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle:
130 Mix'd with her genuine sons, adopted names
In various tongues avow their various claims:
Cydonians, dreadful with the bended yew,
And bold Pelasgi boast a native's due:
The Dorians plumed amid the files of war,
Her foodful glebe with fierce Achaians share;
Cnossus, her capital of high command;
Where scepter'd Minos, with impartial hand,
Divided right; each ninth revolving year,
By Jove received in council to confer.
His son Deucalion bore successive sway;
His son who gave me first to view the day!
The royal bed an elder issue blest,
Idomeneus, whom Ilian fields attest

140

Their gifts the gods resumed (the queen rejoin'd,) Of matchless deeds: untrain'd to martial toil,

Exterior grace, and energy of mind,

When the dear partner of my nuptial joy,
Auxiliar troops combined, to conquer Troy.
My lord's protecting hand alone would raise
My drooping verdure, and extend my praise!
Peers from the distant Samian shore resort:
Here with Dulichians join'd, besiege the court:
Zacynthus, green with ever-shady groves,
And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves:
Obtruding on my choice a second lord,
They press the Hymenæan rite abhorr'd.
Misrule thus mingling with domestic cares,
I live regardless of my state affairs;
Receive no stranger-guest, no poor relieve;
But ever, for my lord, in secret grieve!-
This art, instinct by some celestial power,
I tried, elusive of the bridal-hour:
"Ye peers, I cry, who press to gain a heart,
Where dead Ulysses claims no future part;
Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
Till this funereal web my labours end:
Cease, till to good Laërtes I bequeath
A pall of state, the ornament of death.

190

200

210

I lived inglorious in my native isle,
Studious of peace, and Ethon is my name.
'Twas then to Crete the great Ulysses came;
For elementary war and wintry Jove,
From Malea's gusty cape his navy drove
150 To bright Lucina's fane; the shelfy coast
Where loud Amnisus in the deep is lost.
His vessels moor'd, (an incommodious port!)
The hero speeded to the Cnossian court:
Ardent the partner of his arms to find,
In leagues of long commutual friendship join'd.
Vain hope! ten suns had warm'd the western strand,
Since my brave brother with his Cretan band

Had sail'd for Troy: but to the genial feast
My honour'd roof received the royal guest:

220

160 Beeves for his train the Cnossian peers assign,
A public treat, with jars of generous wine.
Twelve days while Boreas vex'd the aerial space, 230
My hospitable dome he deign'd to grace:
And when the north had ceased her stormy roar,
He wing'd his voyage to the Phrygian shore.

Thus the famed hero perfected in wiles,

With fair similitude of truth beguiles

The queen's attentive ear: dissolved in woe,
From her bright eyes the tears unbounded flow,
As snows collected on the mountain freeze,
When milder regions breathe a vernal breeze.
The fleecy pile obeys the whispering gales,
Ends in a stream, and murmurs through the vales:
So, melted with the pleasing tale he told,
Down her fair cheek the copious torrent roll'd:
She to her present lord laments him lost.
And views that object which she wants the most!
Withering at heart, to see the weeping fair,
His eyes look stern and cast a gloomy stare;
Of horn the stiff, relentless baHs appear,
Or globes of iron fix'd in either sphere;
Firm wisdom interdicts the softening tear.
A speechless interval of grief ensues,
Till thus the queen the tender theme renews.

Stranger! that e'er thy hospitable roof
Ulysses graced, confirm by faithful proof;
Delineate to my view my warlike lord,
His form, his habit, and his train record.

'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight
Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight;
Rare on the mind those images are traced,
Whose footsteps twenty winters have defaced:
But what I can, receive.-In ample mode,
A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame: illustrious on his breast.
The double-clasping gold the king confest.
In the rich woof a hound, Mosaic drawn,
Bore on full stretch, and seized a dappled fawn
Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold;
They pant and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shone

240

With the dear blessing of a fair increase;
Himself adorn'd with more than mortal grace:
Yet while I speak, the mighty woe suspend;
Truth forms my tale; to pleasing truth attend:
The royal object of your dearest care,
Breathes in no distant clime the vital air:
In rich Thesprotia, and the nearer bound
Of Thessaly, his name I heard renown'd:
Without retinue, to that friendly shore
Welcomed with gifts of price, a sumless store!
His sacrilegious train, who dared to prey
On herds devoted to the god of day,
Were doom'd by Jove, and Phœbus' just decree,
To perish in the rough Trinacrian sea.
250 To better fate the blameless chief ordain'd,
A floating fragment of the wreck regain'd,
And rode the storm, till, by the billows tost,
He landed on the fair Phæacian coast.
That race,
who emulate the life of gods,
Receive him joyous to their blest abodes:
Large gifts confer, a ready sail command,
To speed his voyage to the Grecian strand
But your wise lord (in whose capacious soul
High schemes of power in just succession roll)
260 His Ithaca refused from favouring Fate,

270

Till copious wealth might guard his regal state.
Phedon the fact affirm'd, whose sovereign sway
Thresprotian tribes, a duteous race, obey;
And bade the gods this added truth attest,
(While pure libations crown'd the genial feast,)
That anchor'd in his port the vessels stand,
To waft the hero to his natal land.

I for Dulichium urge the watery way,
But first the Ulyssean wealth survey:
So rich the value of a store so vast
Demands the pomp of centuries to waste!
The darling object of your royal love
Was journied thence to Dodonean Jove,
By the sure precept of the sylvan shrine,
To form the conduct of his great design:
Irresolute of soul, his state to shroud

310

320

330

340

In dark disguise, or come, a king avow'd?
Thus lives your lord; nor longer doom'd to roam:
Soon will he grace his dear paternal dome.

Short woolly curls o'erfleeced his bending head, 280 By Jove, the source of good, supreme in power!

O'er which a promontory shoulder spread;
Eurybates! in whose large soul alone

Ulysses viewed an image of his own.

His speech the tempest of her grief restored; In all he told she recognised her lord;

290

But when the storm was spent in plenteous showers,
A pause inspiriting her languish'd powers,
O thou, she cried, whom first inclement fate
Made welcome to our hospitable gate;
With all thy wants the name of poor shall end:
Henceforth live honour'd, my domestic friend!
The vest much envied on your native coast,
And regal robe with figured gold embost,
In happier hours my artful hand employ'd,
When my loved lord this blissful bower enjoy'd:
The fall of Troy, erroneous and forlorn,
Doom'd to survive, and never to return!

Then he, with pity touch'd: O royal dame!
Your ever-anxious mind, and beauteous frame,
From the devouring rage of grief reclaim.
I not the fondness of your soul reprove
For such a lord! who crown'd your virgin love

What thanks! what boon! replied the queen, are due,
When time shall prove the storied blessing true?
My lord's return should fate no more retard,
Envy shall sicken at thy vast reward.

But my prophetic tears, alas! presage,
The wounds of Destiny's relentless rage.
I long must weep, nor will Ulysses come,
With royal gifts to send thee honour'd home!-
Your other task, ye menial train forbear:
Now wash the stranger, and the bed prepare:
With splendid palls the downy fleece adorn:
Uprising early with the purple morn,

His sinews shrunk with age, and stiff with toil,
300 In the warm bath foment with fragrant oil.
Then with Telemachus the social feast
Partaking free, my sole invited guest;

360

370 Conscious of worth reviled, thy generous mind
The friendly rite of purity declined;

My will concurring with my queen's command, 440
Accept the bath from this obsequious hand.
A strong emotion shakes my anguish'd breast:
In thy whole form Ulysses seems express'd:
Of all the wretched harbour'd on our coast,
None imaged e'er like thee my master lost.

Thus half discover'd through the dark disguise, With cool composure feign'd, the chief replies: 380 You join your suffrage to the public vote;

390

Whoe'er neglects to pay distinction due,
The breach of hospitable right may rue.
The vulgar of my sex I most exceed
In real fame, when most humane my deed;
And vainly to the praise of queen aspire
If, stranger, I permit that mean attire
Beneath the feastful bower. A narrow space
Confines the circle of our destined race;
'Tis ours with good the scanty round to grace.
Those who to cruel wrong their state abuse,
Dreaded in life, the mutter'd curse pursues;
By death disrobed of all their savage powers,
Then licensed rage her hateful prey devours.
But he whose in-born worth his acts commend,
Of gentle soul, to human race a friend,
The wretched he relieves diffuse his fame,
And distant tongues extol the patron-name.
Princess, he cried, in vain your bounties flow
On me, confirm'd and obstinate in woe.
When my loved Crete received my final view,
And from my weeping eyes her cliffs withdrew,
These tatter'd weeds (my decent robe resign'd)
I chose, the livery of my woeful mind!
Nor will my heart-corroding cares abate
With splendid palls, and canopies of state:
Low-couch'd on earth, the gift of sleep I scorn,
And catch the glances of the waking morn.
The delicacy of your courtly train
To wash a wretched wanderer would disdain ;
But if, in tract of long experience tried,
And sad similitude of woes allied,
Some wretch reluctant views aërial light,
To her mean hand assign the friendly rite.
Pleased with this wise reply, the queen rejoin'd:
Such gentle manners, and so sage a mind,
In all who graced this hospitable bower
I ne'er discern'd before this social hour.
Such servant as your humble choice requires,
To light received the lord of my desires,
New from the birth: and with a mother's hand
His tender bloom to manly growth sustain'd:
Of matchless prudence, and a duteous mind:
Though now to life's extremest verge declined,
Of strength superior to the task assign'd.-
Rise, Euryclea! with officious care,
For the poor friend the cleansing bath prepare:
This debt his correspondent fortunes claim,
Too like Ulysses, and perhaps the same!
Thus old with woes my fancy paints him now!
For age untimely marks the careful brow.

Instant, obsequious to the mild command,
Sad Euryclea rose: with trembling hand
She veils the torrent of her tearful eyes;
And thus impassion'd to herself replies:

Son of my love, and monarch of my cares!
What pangs for thee this retched bosom bears!
Are thus by Jove who constant beg his aid
With pious deed, and pure devotion, paid?
He never dared defraud the sacred fane,
Of perfect hecatombs in order slain :
There oft implored his tutelary power,
Long to protract the sad sepulchral hour;
That, form'd for empire with paternal care,
His realm might recognise an equal heir.
O destined head! The pious vows are lost;
His God forgets him on a foreign coast!-
Perhaps, like thee, poor guest! in wanton pride
The rich insult him, and the young deride!

The same you think, have all beholders thought.
He said: replenish'd from the purest springs, 450
The laver straight with busy care she brings:
In the deep vase that shone like burnish'd gold,
The boiling fluid temperates the cold.
Meantime revolving in his thoughtful mind
The scar, with which his manly knee was sign'd;
His face averting from the crackling blaze,
His shoulders intercept the unfriendly rays:
Thus cautious, in the obscure he hoped to fly
The curious search of Euryclea's eye.
Cautious in vain nor ceased the dame to find,
The scar with which his manly knee was sign'd.
This on Parnassus (combating the boar)
With glancing rage the tusky savage tore.
Attended by his brave maternal race,
His grandsire sent him to the sylvan chace,
Autolycus the bold: (a mighty name

460

For spotless faith and deeds of martial fame: 400 Hermes, his patron-god, those gifts bestow'd, Whose shrine with weanling lambs he wont to load.)

His course to Ithaca this hero sped,

When the first product of Laërtes' bed

Was new disclosed to birth: the banquet ends,

And to his fond embrace the habe commends.

66

470

When Euryclea from the queen descends,

Receive, she cries, your royal daughter's son;

410

And when with filial love the youth shall come
To view his mother's soil, my Delphic dome
With gifts of price shall send him joyous home.
Lured with the promised boon, when youthful prime
Ended in man, his mother's natal clime
Ulysses sought; with fond affection dear
420 Amphithea's arms received the royal heir:
Her ancient lord* an equal joy possess'd;
Instant he bade prepare the genial feast:
A steer to form the sumptuous banquet bled,
Whose stately growth five flowery summers fed:
His sons divide, and roast with artful care
The limbs; then all the tasteful viands share.
Nor ceased discourse, (the banquet of the soul)
Till Phoebus, wheeling to the western goal,
Resign'd the skies, and night revolved the pole.
430 Their drooping eyes the slumberous shade oppress'd,
Sated they rose, and all retired to rest.

490

Soon as the morn, new-robed in purple light, Pierced with her golden shafts the rear of night, 500 Ulysses and his brave maternal race,

The young Autolyci, assay the chace

* Autolycus

Parnassus, thick perplex'd with horrid shades,
With deep-mouth'd hounds the hunter-troop invades:
What time the sun, from ocean's peaceful stream,
Darts o'er the lawn his horizontal beam.
The pack impatient snuff the tainted gale
The thorny wilds the woodmen fierce assail;
And, foremost of the train, his cornel spear
Ulysses waved, to rouse the savage war.
Deep in the rough recesses of the wood,
A lofty copse, the growth of ages, stood;

Else, if the gods my vengeful arm sustain,
And prostrate to my sword the suitor-train,
With their lewd mates, thy undistinguish'd age
Shall bleed a victim to vindictive rage.

Then thus rejoin'd the dame, devoid of fear:
What words, my son, have pass'd thy lips severe ?
Deep in my soul the trust shall lodge secured;
510 With ribs of steel, and marble heart, immured.
When heaven, auspicious to thy right avow'd,
Shall prostrate to thy sword the suitor-crowd;
The deeds I'll blazon of the menial fair;
The lewd to death devote, the virtuous spare.
Thy aid avails me not, the chief replied;
My own experience shall their doom decide;
A witness-judge precludes a long appeal :
Suffice it then thy monarch to conceal.

He said: obsequious, with redoubled pace,
520 She to the fount conveys the exhausted vase:
The bath renew'd, she ends the pleasing toil
With plenteous unction of ambrosial oil.
Adjusting to his limbs the tatter'd vest,
His former seat received the stranger-guest;
Whom thus with pensive air the queen addrest:
Though night, dissolving grief in grateful ease,
Your drooping eyes with soft oppression seize,
Awhile, reluctant to her pleasing force,
Suspend the restful hour with sweet discourse.
530 The day (ne'er brighten'd with a beam of joy!)
By menials, and domestic cares employ :
And, unattended by sincere repose,
The night assists by ever-wakeful woes:

Nor winter's boreal blast, nor thunderous shower,
Nor solar ray, could pierce the shady bower.
With wither'd foliage strew'd, a heapy store!
The warm pavilion of a dreadful boar.
Roused by the hounds' and hunters' mingling crics,
The savage from his leafy shelter flies:
With fiery glare his sanguine eye-balls shine,
And bristles high impale his horrid chine.
Young Ithacus advanced, defies the foe,
Poising his lifted lance in act to throw;
The savage renders vain the wound decreed,
And springs impetuous with opponent speed!
His tusks oblique he aim'd, the knee to gore:
Aslope they glanced, the sinewy fibres tore,
And bared the bone: Ulysses, undismay'd,
Soon with redoubled force the wound repaid;
To the right shoulder-joint the spear applied,
His further flank with seeming purple dyed;
On earth he rush'd, with agonizing pain:
With joy and vast surprise, the applauding train
View'd his enormous bulk extended on the plain.
With bandage firm Ulysses' knee they bound;
Then chanting mystic lays, the closing wound
Of sacred melody confess'd the force;
The tides of life regain'd their azure course.
Then back they led the youth with loud acclaim;
Autolycus, enamour'd with his fame,
Confirm'd the cure: and from the Delphic dome
With added gifts return'd him glorious home.
He safe at Ithaca with joy received,
Relates the chace, and early praise achieved.
Deep o'er his knee inseam'd remain'd the scar;
Which noted token of the woodland war
When Euryclea found, the ablution ceased:
Down dropp'd the leg, from her slack hand released;
The mingled fluids from the vase redound;
The vase reclining floats the floor around!
Smiles dew'd with tears the pleasing strife express'd
Of grief and joy alternate in her breast.
Her fluttering words in melting murmurs died;
At length abrupt-My son !-my king!-she cried.
His neck with fond embrace infolding fast,
Full on the queen her raptured eye she cast,
Ardent to speak the monarch safe restored :
But studious to conceal her royal lord,
Minerva fix'd her mind on views remote,
And from the present bliss abstracts her thought.
His hand to Euryclea's mouth applied,

Art thou foredoom'd my pest? the hero cried:
Thy milky founts my infant lips have drain'd:
And have the Fates thy babbling age ordain'd
To violate the life thy youth sustain'd?
An exile have I told, with weeping eyes,
Full twenty annual suns in distant skies:
At length return'd, some god inspires thy breast
To know thy king, and here I stand confess'd.
This heaven-discover'd truth to thee consign'd,
Reserve, the treasure of thy inmost mind:

580

590

600

When nature's hush'd beneath her brooding shade,
My echoing griefs the starry vault invade.
As when the months are clad in flowery green,
Sad Philomel, in bowery shades unseen,
To vernal airs attunes her varied strains :
And Itylus sounds warbling o'er the plains:
240 Young Itylus, his parent's darling joy!

550

Whom chance misled the mother to destroy;
Now doom'd a wakeful bird to wail the beauteous boy;
So in nocturnal solitude forlorn,

A sad variety of woes I mourn

My mind, reflective, in a thorny maze
Devious from care to care incessant strays.
Now, wavering doubt succeeds to long despair;
Shall I my virgin nuptial-vow revere?
And joining to my son's my menial train,
Partake his councils, and assist his reign?
Or since, mature in manhood, he deplores
His dome dishonour'd, and exhausted stores,
Shall I, reluctant! to his will accord;
And from the peers select the noblest lord;
So by my choice avow'd, at length decide
These wasteful love debates, a mourning bride?
A visionary thought I'll now relate;
Illustrate, if you know, the shadow'd fate.

610

620

630

A team of twenty geese (a snow-white train!)
560 Fed near the limpid lake with golden grain,
Amuse my pensive hours. The bird of Jove
Fierce from his mountain-eyrie downward drove ;
Each favourite fowl he pounced with deathful sway,
And back triumphant winged his airy way.
My pitying eyes effused a plenteous stream,
To view their death thus imaged in a dream:
With tender sympathy to soothe my soul,
A troop of matrons, fancy-form'd, condole.
But whilst with grief and rage my bosom burn'd,
570 Sudden the tyrant of the skies return'd:

Perch'd on the battlements he thus began
(In form an eagle, but in voice a man: )
O queen! no vulgar vision of the sky
I come, prophetic of approaching joy :
View in this plumy form thy victor-lord;
These geese (a glutton race) by thee deplored,
Portend the suitors fated to my sword.
This said, the pleasing feather'd omen ceased.
When from the downy bands of sleep released,
Fast by the limpid lake my swan-like train
I found, insatiate of the golden grain.

The vision self-explain'd (the chief replies)
Sincere reveals the sanction of the skies;
Ulysses speaks his own return decreed;
And by his sword the suitors sure to bleed.

Hard is the task, and rare, the queen rejoin'd,
Impending destinies in dreams to find;
Immured within the silent bower of sleep,
Two portals firm the various phantoms keep:
Of ivory one; whence flit, to mock the brain,
Of winged lies a light fantastic train:
The gate opposed pellucid valves adorn,
And columns fair incased with polish'd horn:
Where images of truth for passage wait,
With visions manifest of future fate.
Not to this troop, I fear, that phantom soar'd,
Which spoke Ulysses to his realm restored:
Delusive semblance!--but my remnant life
Heaven shall determine in a gameful strife:
With that famed bow Ulysses taught to bend,
For me the rival archers shall contend.
As on the listed field he used to place
Six beams, opposed to six in equal space;
Elanced afar by his unerring art,

640

650

BOOK XX.

ARGUMENT.

While Ulysses lies in the vestibule of the palace, he is witness to the disorders of the women. Minerva comforts him, and casts him asleep. At his waking he desires a favourable sign from Jupiter, which is granted. The feast of Apollo is celebrated by the people, and the suitors banquet in the palace. Telemachus exerts his authority amongst them; notwithstanding which, Ulysses is insulted by Ctesippus, and the rest continue in their excesses. Strange prodigies are seen by Theoclymenus, the augur, who explains them to the destruction of the wooers.

BOOK XX.

AN ample hide divine Ulysses spread,
And form'd of fleecy skins his humble bed:
(The remnants of the spoil the suitor-crowd
In festival devour'd, and victims vow'd.)
Then o'er the chief, Euronymè the chaste
660 With duteous care a downy carpet cast:
With dire revenge his thoughtful bosom glows,
And, ruminating wrath, he scorns repose.

As thus pavilion'd in the porch he lay,
Scenes of lewd loves his wakeful eyes survey,
Whilst to nocturnal joys impure, repair,
With wanton glee, the prostituted fair.
His heart with rage this new dishonour stung,
Wavering his thoughts in dubious balance hung;
Or instant should he quench the guilty flame
670 With their own blood, and intercept the shame;
Or to their lust indulge a last embrace,
And let the peers consummate the disgrace:
Round his swoln heart the murmurous fury rolls;
As o'er her young the mother mastiff growls,
And bays the stranger groom: so wrath comprest
Recoiling, mutter'd thunder in his breast.
Poor suffering heart! he cried, support the pain
Of wounded honour, and thy rage restrain.
Not fiercer woes thy fortitude could foil,
When the brave partners of thy ten years' toil
Dire Polypheme devour'd: I then was freed
By patient prudence from the death decreed.

Sure through six circlets flew the whizzing dart.
So, when the sun restores the purple day,
Their strength and skill the suitors shall assay:
To him the spousal honour is decreed,
Who through the rings directs the feather'd reed.
Torn from these walls (where long the kinder powers
With joy and pomp have wing'd my youthful
hours!)

On this poor breast no dawn of bliss shall beam; 680
The pleasure past supplies a copious theme
For many a dreary thought, and many a doleful
dream!

Propose the sportive lot, the chief replies,
Nor dread to name yourself the bowyer's prize:
Ulysses will surprise the unfinish'd game
Avow'd, and falsify the suitors' claim.

To whom with grace serene the queen rejoin'd:
In all thy speech what pleasing force I find!
O'er my suspended woe thy words prevail;
I part reluctant from the pleasing tale.

But heaven, that knows what all terrestrials need,
Repose to night, and toil to day decreed;
Grateful vicissitude! yet me withdrawn,
Wakeful to weep and watch the tardy dawn
Establish'd use enjoins; to rest and joy
Estranged, since dear Ulysses sail'd to Troy!
Meantime instructed is the menial tribe
Your couch to fashion as yourself prescribe.

Thus affable, her bower the queen ascends;
The sovereign step a beauteous train attends :
There imaged to her soul Ulysses rose;

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Thus anchor'd safe on reason's peaceful coast,
Tempests of wrath his soul no longer tost;
Restless his body rolls, to rage resign'd:
As one who long with pale-eyed famine pined,
The savoury cates on glowing embers cast,
Incessant turns, impatient for repast:
Ulysses so, from side to side devolved,
In self-debate the suitors' doom resolved.
When, in the form of mortal nymph array'd,
From heaven descends the Jove-born martial meid;
And hovering o'er his head in view confess'd,
The goddess thus her favourite care address'd:
Oh thou, of mortals most inured to woes!
Why roll those eyes unfriended of repose?
Beneath thy palace roof forget thy care:
Blest in thy queen! blest in thy blooming heir!
Whom, to the gods when suppliant fathers bow,
They name the standard of their dearest vow.

Just is thy kind reproach (the chief rejoin`d,)
700 Deeds full of fate distract my various mind,
In contemplation wrapp'd. This hostile crew

Down her pale cheek new-streaming sorrow flows: What single arm hath power to subdue?

Till soft oblivious shade Minerva spread,
And o'er her eyes ambrosial slumber shed.

Or if, by Jove's and thy auxiliar aid,
They're doom'd to bleed: O say, celestial maid!

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