[drew,

He seiz'd my hand, and gracious thus began:
Ah! whither roam'st thou, much-enduring man?
Oh, blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove
The horrid nazes 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 direfu! 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 poisons shall be vain.
Soon as she strikes her wand, and gives the word,
Draw forth and brandish thy refulgent sword,
And menace death: those menaces shall 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 :
So shall thy tedious toils a respite find,
And thy lost friends return to human-kind.
But swear her first by those dread oatifs 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
Where on th' 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 th' etherial kind.
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 th' enchanted dome:
Arriv'd, 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
Receiv'd my limbs; a footstool eas'd 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 wav'd the wand, and then the word was given.
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 beany falchion, I assault the dame.
Struck with unusual fear, she trembling cries,
She faints, she falls; she lifts her weeping eyes.
"What art thou? say! from whence, from whom
you came?

Ob, more than human! tell thy race, thy name.
Amazing strength these poisons to sustain !
Nor 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,
Sheath thy bright sword, and join our hands in

[led

[woods,

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,
And magic bind me, cold and impotent!
Celestial as thou art, yet stand denied ;
Or swear that oath by which the gods are tied,
Swear, in thy soul no latent frauds remain,
Swear by the vow which never can be vain.'
"The goddess swore then seiz'd my hand, and
To the sweet transports of the genial bed.
Ministrant to their queen, with busy care
Four faithful bandinaids the soft rites prepare;
Nymphs sprung from fountains, or from shady
Or the fair offspring of the sacred floods.
One o'er the couches painted carpets threw,
Whose purple lustre glow'd against the view:
White linen lay beneath. Another plac'd
The silver stands with golden flaskets grac'd:
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 prepar'd, 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 plac'd 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 absorb in care:
While scenes of woe rose anxious in my breast,
The queen beheld me, and those 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 thy breast,
By justice sway'd, by tender pity prest:
Ill fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts,
To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts.
Me would'st thou please? for them thy cares em-
And them to me restore, and me to joy.'
"With that she parted: in her potent hand
She bore the virtue of the magic wand.
Then hastening to the sties, set wide the door,
Urg'd forth, and drove the bristly herd before;
Unwieldy, out they rush'd with general cry,
Enormous beasts dishonest to the eye.
Now touch'd by counter charms, they change again,
And stand majestic, and recall'd to men.
Those hairs, of late that bristled every part,
Fall off, miraculous effect of art!
Till all the form in full proportion rise,
More young, more large, more graceful to my eyes.
They saw, they knew me, and with eager pace
Clung to their master in a long embrace:

[ploy,

Sad, pleasing sight with tears each eye ran o'er,
And sobs of joy re-echoed through the bower:
Ev'n Circe wept, her adamantine heart
Felt pity enter, and sustain'd her part.

"Son of Laertes !' (then the queen began)
Oh much-enduring, much-experienc'd man!
Haste to thy vessel on the sea-beat shore,
Vaload thy treasures, and the galley moor:
Then bring thy friends, secure from future harins,
And in our grottoes stow thy spoils and arms.'

4 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,

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?

Not that lov'd country for whose sight we mourn !
The soil that nurs'd us, and that gave us breath:
But, ah! relate our lost companions' death.'

"I answer'd cheerful: '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:
Alone Eurylochus persuades their stay.
'Whither,' he cry'd, ah! whither will ye run?
Seek ye to meet those evils ye should shun?
Will you the terrours 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 Cyclop, and his bloody deed;
The leader's rashness made the soldiers bleed.'
"I heard incens'd, and first resolv'd to speed
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
ground.

But all at once my interposing train

For mercy pleaded, nor could plead in vain.
'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 declar'd, 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.
"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;
Then gushing tears the narrative confound,
And with their sobs the vaulted roofs resound.

When bush'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-e'er ye go
Too faithful memory renews your woe;
The cause remov'd, habitual griefs remain,
And the soul saddens by the use of pain.'

"Her kind entreaty mov'd the general breast;
Tir'd with long toi!, we willing sunk to rest.
We ply'd 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 lov'd 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 seiz'd, 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,
Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies:*
"Go then,' (she cry'd) 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 th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
And view the realms of darkness and of death.
There seek the Theban bard, depriv'd of sight;
Within, irradiate with prophetic light;
To whom Persephone, entire and whole,
Gave to retain th' 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.
Compos'd at length, the gushing tears supprest,
And my tost limbs now weary'd into rest:

་

How shall I tread,? (I cry'd) 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 reply'd)
'Divine Ulysses! asks no mortal guide.
Rear but the mast, the spacious sail display,
The northern winds shall wing thee on thy way.
Son 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 :

And, hell-ward bending, o'er the beach descry
The dolesome passage to th' infernal sky.
The victims, vow'd to each Tartarean power,
Eurylochus and Perimedes bore.

"Here open'd Hell, all Hell I here implor'd,
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, th' 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 dy'd the sheep; a purple torrent flow'd,
And all the caverns smok'd with streaming blood.
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;
Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain
Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train :
These, and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the
And all the dire assembly shriek'd around. [ground,
Astonish'd at the sight, aghast I stood,

And a cold fear ran shivering through my blood;
Straight I command the sacrifice to haste,
Straight the flay'd victims to the flames are cast,
And mutter'd vows, and mystic song applied
To grizzly Pluto, and his gloomy bride.

"Now swift I wave 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,
Out-fly the nimble sail, and leave the lagging
wind?'

"The ghost replied: To Hell my doom I owe, Demons 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 lov'd Telemachus's blooming years!
For well I know that soon the heavenly powers
Will give thee back to day, and Circe's shores :
There pious on my cold remains attend,
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.

There high in air, memorial of my name,
Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.'
"To whom with tears; These rites, O mourn-
ful shade,

66

Due to thy ghost, shall to thy ghost be paid.'
"Still as I spoke, the phantom seem'd to moan,
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,
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
To tread the downward, melancholy way? [day,
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 stedfast purpose, and thy future fates.'

"While yet he spoke, the prophet I obey'd,
And in the scabbard plung'd the glittering blade:
Eager he quaff'd the gore, and then exprest
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 tost,
For injur'd Cyclop, and his eye-ball lost!
Yet to thy woes the gods decree an end,

If Heaven thou 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 to 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!
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 billows 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;;