I know a famous Orphic incantation To make the brand stick of its own accord Into the skull of this one-eyed Son of Earth. Ulysses. Of old I knew ye thus by nature; now Of my own comrades.-Yet, though weak of hand, The courage of my friends with your blithe words. And parch up to dust Burn and blind The Etnean hind! Scoop and draw! But beware lest he claw Your limbs near his maw. Cyclops. Ah me! my eyesight is parched up to cinders! Chorus. What a sweet pæan! Sing me that again ! Cyclops. Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me? But, wretched Nothings, think ye not to flee Out of this rock! I, standing at the outlet, Will bar the way, and catch you as you pass. Chorus. For you are wicked. Cyclops. I perish! And besides miserable. Chorus. What, did you fall into the fire when drunk? Cyclops. 'Twas Nobody destroyed me. Cyclops. I wish you were as blind as I am! It cannot be that no one made you blind. Cyclops. You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody? Nay, Cyclops. It was that stranger ruined me !-the wretch For wine is strong and hard to struggle with. Chorus. They stand under the darkness of the rock, Cyclops. At my right hand or left? Chorus. Close on your right. Cyclops. Not there, although you say so. Now they escape you there. Not on that side. They creep about you on your left. Cyclops. Where then? Cyclops. Ah! I am mocked! They jeer me in my ills. Cyclops. Detested wretch! where are you? I keep with care this body of Ulysses. Far from you Cyclops. What do you say? You proffer a new name. And I have taken A full revenge for your unnatural feast; I should have done ill to have burned down Troy, And not revenged the murder of my comrades. Cyclops. Ai! ai! the ancient oracle is accomplished; It said that I should have my eyesight blinded By you coming from Troy; yet it foretold That you should pay the penalty for this By wandering long over the homeless sea. I Ulysses. I bid thee weep!-Consider what I say; go towards the shore, to drive my ship To mine own land o'er the Sicilian wave. Cyclops. Not so, if whelming you with this huge stone I can crush you and all your men together! I will descend upon the shore, though blind, Groping my way adown the steep ravine. Chorus. And we, the shipmates of Ulysses now, Will serve our Bacchus all our happy lives. EPIGRAMS FROM THE GREEK. 1.-SPIRIT OF PLATO. "EAGLE! why soarest thou above that tomb? To what sublime and star-y-paven home Floatest thou ?” "I am the image of swift Plato's spirit, Ascending heaven :- Athens does inherit His corpse below." II. A MAN who was about to hang himself, The halter found, and used it. So is hope FROM PLATO. I. TO STELLA. THOU Wert the Morning Star among the living, Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving II. KISSING Helena, together With my kiss, my soul beside it Came to my lips, and there I kept it,- FROM MOSCHUS. Τὰν ὅλα τὰν γλαυκὰν ὅταν ἄνεμος ἀτρέμα βάλλῃ, κ. τ. λ. I. WHEN winds that move not its calm surface sweep The azure sea, I love the land no more: The smiles of the serene and tranquil deep Of ocean's grey abyss resounds, and foam Of earth and its deep woods, where, interspersed, Has chosen. But I my languid limbs will fling Beneath the plane, where the brook's murmuring Moves the calm spirit but disturbs it not. II. PAN loved his neighbour Echo; but that child The Satyr loved with wasting madness wild The bright nymph Lyda:-and so the three went weeping. As Pan loved Echo, Echo loved the Satyr ; The Satyr, Lyda:—and thus love consumed them. And thus to each which was a woful matter To bear what they inflicted Justice doomed them; Each, loving, so was hated.-Ye that love not, FROM VIRGIL. THE TENTH ECLOGUE. [v. 1-26]. MELODIOUS Arethusa, o'er my verse Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream: Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam Of Syracusan waters, mayst thou flow Unmingled with the bitter Doric dew! Begin, and, whilst the goats are browzing now The soft leaves, in our way let us pursue The melancholy loves of Gallus. List! We sing not to the dead: the wild woods knew His sufferings, and their echoes .. Young Naiads, . . in what far woodlands wild Wandered ye when unworthy love possessed Your Gallus? Not where Pindus is up-piled, Nor where Parnassus' sacred mount, nor where 1816. Aonian Aganippe expands The laurels and the myrtle-copses dim. What madness is this, Gallus? Thy heart's care FROM DANTE. DANTE ALLIGHIERI TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI-SONNET. GUIDO, I would that Lapo, thou, and I, Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend A magic ship whose charmed sails should fly With winds at will, where'er our thoughts might wend,- So that no change nor any evil chance Should mar our joyous voyage, but it might be That even satiety should still enhance Between our hearts their strict community; Companions of our wandering, and would grace THE FIRST CANZONE OF THE CONVITO. I. YE who intelligent the Third Heaven move, Which cannot be declared, it seems so new. The Heaven whose course follows your power and art, |