The Iliad of Homer


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Leap'd from the channel, and regain'd the land.  
Then blacken'd the wild waves: the murmur rose:  
The god pursues, a huger billow throws,  
And bursts the bank, ambitious to destroy  
The man whose fury is the fate of Troy.  
He like the warlike eagle speeds his pace  
(
Swiftest and strongest of the aerial race);  
Far as a spear can fly, Achilles springs;  
At every bound his clanging armour rings:  
Now here, now there, he turns on every side,  
And winds his course before the following tide;  
The waves flow after, wheresoe'er he wheels,  
And gather fast, and murmur at his heels.  
So when a peasant to his garden brings  
Soft rills of water from the bubbling springs,  
And calls the floods from high, to bless his bowers,  
And feed with pregnant streams the plants and flowers:  
Soon as he clears whate'er their passage stay'd,  
And marks the future current with his spade,  
Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills,  
Louder and louder purl the falling rills;  
Before him scattering, they prevent his pains,  
And shine in mazy wanderings o'er the plains.  
Still flies Achilles, but before his eyes  
Still swift Scamander rolls where'er he flies:  
751  


Page
749 750 751 752 753

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980