The Odyssey of Homer


google search for The Odyssey of Homer

Return to Master Book Index.

Page
143 144 145 146 147

Quick Jump
1 153 306 459 612

Thus spent already, how shall nature bear  
The dews descending, and nocturnal air;  
Or chilly vapours breathing from the flood  
When morning rises?--If I take the wood,  
And in thick shelter of innumerous boughs  
Enjoy the comfort gentle sleep allows;  
Though fenced from cold, and though my toil be pass'd,  
What savage beasts may wander in the waste?  
Perhaps I yet may fall a bloody prey  
To prowling bears, or lions in the way."  
Thus long debating in himself he stood:  
At length he took the passage to the wood,  
Whose shady horrors on a rising brow  
Waved high, and frown'd upon the stream below.  
There grew two olives, closest of the grove,  
With roots entwined, the branches interwove;  
Alike their leaves, but not alike they smiled  
With sister-fruits; one fertile, one was wild.  
Nor here the sun's meridian rays had power,  
Nor wind sharp-piercing, nor the rushing shower;  
The verdant arch so close its texture kept:  
Beneath this covert great Ulysses crept.  
Of gather'd leaves an ample bed he made  
(
Thick strewn by tempest through the bowery shade);  
Where three at least might winter's cold defy,  
45  
1


Page
143 144 145 146 147

Quick Jump
1 153 306 459 612