Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) by William Shakespeare, Homer Read Free Book Online Page A

who receivedThe price in gold of her own husband’s life.   But all the wives of Heroes whom I saw,And all their daughters can I not relate;Night, first, would fail; and even now the hourCalls me to rest either on board my bark,    400 Or here; meantime, I in yourselves confide,And in the Gods to shape my conduct home.   He ceased; the whole assembly silent sat,Charm’d into ecstacy by his discourseThroughout the twilight hall, till, at the last,Areta iv’ry arm’d them thus bespake.   Phæacians! how appears he in your eyesThis stranger, graceful as he is in port,In stature noble, and in mind discrete?My guest he is, but ye all share with me    410 That honour; him dismiss not, therefore, henceWith haste, nor from such indigence withholdSupplies gratuitous; for ye are rich,And by kind heav’n with rare possessions blest.   The Hero, next, Echeneus spake, a ChiefNow ancient, eldest of Phæacia’s sons.   Your prudent Queen, my friends, speaks not besideHer proper scope, but as beseems her well.Her voice obey; yet the effect of allMust on Alcinoüs himself depend.    420   To whom Alcinoüs, thus, the King, replied.I ratify the word. So shall be done,As surely as myself shall live supremeO’er all Phæacia’s maritime domain.Then let the guest, though anxious to depart,Wait till the morrow, that I may completeThe whole donation. His safe conduct homeShall be the gen’ral care, but mine in Chief,To whom dominion o’er the rest belongs.   Him answer’d, then, Ulysses ever-wise.    430 Alcinoüs! Prince! exalted high o’er allPhæacia’s sons! should ye solicit, kind,My stay throughout the year, preparing stillMy conduct home, and with illustrious giftsEnriching me the while, ev’n that requestShould please me well; the wealthier I return’d,The happier my condition; welcome moreAnd more respectable I should appearIn ev’ry eye to Ithaca restored.   To whom Alcinoüs answer thus return’d.    440 Ulysses! viewing thee, no fears we feelLest thou, at length, some false pretender prove,Or subtle hypocrite, of whom no fewDisseminated o’er its face the earthSustains, adepts in fiction, and who frameFables, where fables could be least surmised.Thy phrase well turn’d, and thy ingenuous mindProclaim thee diff’rent far, who hast in strainsMusical as a poet’s voice, the woesRehears’d of all thy Greecians, and thy own.    450 But say, and tell me true. Beheld’st thou thereNone of thy followers to the walls of TroySlain in that warfare? Lo! the night is long —A night of utmost length; nor yet the hourInvites to sleep. Tell me thy wond’rous deeds,For I could watch till sacred dawn, could’st thouSo long endure to tell me of thy toils.   Then thus Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.Alcinoüs! high exalted over allPhæacia’s sons! the time suffices yet    460 For converse both and sleep, and if thou wishTo hear still more, I shall not spare to unfoldMore pitiable woes than these, sustain’dBy my companions, in the end destroy’d;Who, saved from perils of disast’rous warAt Ilium, perish’d yet in their return,Victims of a pernicious woman’s crime.   Now, when chaste Proserpine had wide dispers’dThose female shades, the spirit sore distress’dOf Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, appear’d;    470 Encircled by a throng, he came; by allWho with himself beneath Ægisthus’ roofTheir fate fulfill’d, perishing by the sword.He drank the blood, and knew me; shrill he wail’dAnd querulous; tears trickling bathed his cheeks,And with spread palms, through ardour of desireHe sought to enfold me fast, but vigour none,Or force, as erst, his agile limbs inform’d.I, pity-moved, wept at the sight, and him,In accents wing’d by friendship, thus address’d.    480   Ah glorious son of Atreus, King of men!What hand inflicted the all-numbing strokeOf death on thee? Say, didst thou perish sunkBy howling tempests irresistibleWhich Neptune raised, or on dry land by forceOf hostile multitudes, while