The Odyssey of Homer


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The distant land appear'd the following day:  
Then swell'd to sight Phaeacia's dusky coast,  
And woody mountains, half in vapours lost;  
That lay before him indistinct and vast,  
Like a broad shield amid the watery waste.  
But him, thus voyaging the deeps below,  
From far, on Solyme's aerial brow,  
The king of ocean saw, and seeing burn'd  
(From AEthiopia's happy climes return'd);  
The raging monarch shook his azure head,  
And thus in secret to his soul he said:  
"
Heavens! how uncertain are the powers on high!  
Is then reversed the sentence of the sky,  
In one man's favour; while a distant guest  
I shared secure the AEthiopian feast?  
Behold how near Phoenecia's land he draws;  
The land affix'd by Fate's eternal laws  
To end his toils. Is then our anger vain?  
No; if this sceptre yet commands the main."  
He spoke, and high the forky trident hurl'd,  
Rolls clouds on clouds, and stirs the watery world,  
At once the face of earth and sea deforms,  
Swells all the winds, and rouses all the storms.  
Down rushed the night: east, west, together roar;  
135  


Page
133 134 135 136 137

Quick Jump
1 153 306 459 612