The Iliad of Homer


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The teeth it shatter'd, and the tongue it rent.  
Prone from the seat he tumbles to the plain;  
His dying hand forgets the falling rein:  
This Merion reaches, bending from the car,  
And urges to desert the hopeless war:  
Idomeneus consents; the lash applies;  
And the swift chariot to the navy flies.  
Not Ajax less the will of heaven descried,  
And conquest shifting to the Trojan side,  
Turn'd by the hand of Jove. Then thus begun,  
To Atreus's seed, the godlike Telamon:  
"
Alas! who sees not Jove's almighty hand  
Transfers the glory to the Trojan band?  
Whether the weak or strong discharge the dart,  
He guides each arrow to a Grecian heart:  
Not so our spears; incessant though they rain,  
He suffers every lance to fall in vain.  
Deserted of the god, yet let us try  
What human strength and prudence can supply;  
If yet this honour'd corse, in triumph borne,  
May glad the fleets that hope not our return,  
Who tremble yet, scarce rescued from their fates,  
And still hear Hector thundering at their gates.  
Some hero too must be despatch'd to bear  
655  


Page
653 654 655 656 657

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980