The Iliad of Homer


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And flatted vineyards, one sad waste appear!(144)  
While Jove descends in sluicy sheets of rain,  
And all the labours of mankind are vain.  
So raged Tydides, boundless in his ire,  
Drove armies back, and made all Troy retire.  
With grief the leader of the Lycian band  
Saw the wide waste of his destructive hand:  
His bended bow against the chief he drew;  
Swift to the mark the thirsty arrow flew,  
Whose forky point the hollow breastplate tore,  
Deep in his shoulder pierced, and drank the gore:  
The rushing stream his brazen armour dyed,  
While the proud archer thus exulting cried:  
"Hither, ye Trojans, hither drive your steeds!  
Lo! by our hand the bravest Grecian bleeds,  
Not long the deathful dart he can sustain;  
Or Phoebus urged me to these fields in vain."  
So spoke he, boastful: but the winged dart  
Stopp'd short of life, and mock'd the shooter's art.  
The wounded chief, behind his car retired,  
The helping hand of Sthenelus required;  
Swift from his seat he leap'd upon the ground,  
And tugg'd the weapon from the gushing wound;  
When thus the king his guardian power address'd,  
212  


Page
210 211 212 213 214

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980