The Iliad of Homer


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On every side the busy combat grows;  
Thick as beneath some shepherd's thatch'd abode  
(The pails high foaming with a milky flood)  
The buzzing flies, a persevering train,  
Incessant swarm, and chased return again.  
Jove view'd the combat with a stern survey,  
And eyes that flash'd intolerable day.  
Fix'd on the field his sight, his breast debates  
The vengeance due, and meditates the fates:  
Whether to urge their prompt effect, and call  
The force of Hector to Patroclus' fall,  
This instant see his short-lived trophies won,  
And stretch him breathless on his slaughter'd son;  
Or yet, with many a soul's untimely flight,  
Augment the fame and horror of the fight.  
To crown Achilles' valiant friend with praise  
At length he dooms; and, that his last of days  
Shall set in glory, bids him drive the foe;  
Nor unattended see the shades below.  
Then Hector's mind he fills with dire dismay;  
He mounts his car, and calls his hosts away;  
Sunk with Troy's heavy fates, he sees decline  
The scales of Jove, and pants with awe divine.  
Then, nor before, the hardy Lycians fled,  
613  


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611 612 613 614 615

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980