The Odyssey of Homer


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To the hoarse murmurs of the rolling deep.  
"Soon as the morn restored the day, we paid  
Sepulchral honours to Elpenor's shade.  
Now by the axe the rushing forest bends,  
And the huge pile along the shore ascends.  
Around we stand, a melancholy train,  
And a loud groan re-echoes from the main.  
Fierce o'er the pyre, by fanning breezes spread,  
The hungry flames devour the silent dead.  
A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace,  
Fast by the roarings of the main we place;  
The rising tomb a lofty column bore,  
And high above it rose the tapering oar.  
"
Meantime the goddess our return survey'd  
From the pale ghosts and hell's tremendous shade.  
Swift she descends: a train of nymphs divine  
Bear the rich viands and the generous wine:  
In act to speak the power of magic stands,  
And graceful thus accosts the listening bands;  
"'O sons of woe? decreed by adverse fates  
Alive to pass through hell's eternal gates!  
All, soon or late, are doom'd that path to tread;  
More wretched you! twice number'd with the dead!  
305  


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303 304 305 306 307

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