The Iliad of Homer


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Thy gentle accents soften'd all my pain.  
For thee I mourn, and mourn myself in thee,  
The wretched source of all this misery.  
The fate I caused, for ever I bemoan;  
Sad Helen has no friend, now thou art gone!  
Through Troy's wide streets abandon'd shall I roam!  
In Troy deserted, as abhorr'd at home!"  
So spoke the fair, with sorrow-streaming eye.  
Distressful beauty melts each stander-by.  
On all around the infectious sorrow grows;  
But Priam check'd the torrent as it rose:  
"Perform, ye Trojans! what the rites require,  
And fell the forests for a funeral pyre;  
Twelve days, nor foes nor secret ambush dread;  
Achilles grants these honours to the dead."(299)  
He spoke, and, at his word, the Trojan train  
Their mules and oxen harness to the wain,  
Pour through the gates, and fell'd from Ida's crown,  
Roll back the gather'd forests to the town.  
These toils continue nine succeeding days,  
And high in air a sylvan structure raise.  
But when the tenth fair morn began to shine,  
Forth to the pile was borne the man divine,  
And placed aloft; while all, with streaming eyes,  
885  


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1 245 490 735 980