aside, Seiz'd by the hand, and thus prophetic cried: 'Yon bird, that dexter cuts th' aërial road, Rose ominous, nor flies without a God: No race but thine shall Ithaca obey; To thine, for ages, Heav'n decrees the sway.' 'Succeed the omens, Gods!' (the youth rejoin'd) 'Soon shall my bounties speak a grateful mind, And soon each envied happiness attend 579 The man who calls Telemachus his friend.' Then to Peiræus: Thou whom time has prov'd A faithful servant, by thy Prince belov❜d! Till we returning shall our guest demand, Accept this charge with honour, at our hand.' I haste to meet my mother's longing eyes, And end her tears, her sorrows, and her sighs, But thou, attentive, what we order heed: 10 To wipe the tears from all afflicted eyes, The pain of anger punishes the fault: To this Ulysses: What the Prince requires 20 · The least glad tidings of my absent lord?' To her the youth: We reach'd the Pylian plains, Where Nestor, shepherd of his people, reigns. All arts of tenderness to him are known, My lengthen'd journey, to the Spartan 160 Learn what I heard the sea-born seer re- Sole in an isle, imprison'd by the main, 170 But droop'd her head, and drew a secret sigh. When Theoclymenus the seer began: 'O suff'ring consort of the suff'ring man! What human knowledge could, those Kings might tell, But I the secrets of high Heav'n reveal. Before the first of Gods be this declared, Before the board whose blessings we have shared; Witness the genial rites, and witness all This house holds sacred in her ample wall! |