Sold to Laertes by divine command,

And now adopted to a foreign land."

To him the king: "Reciting thus thy cares,

My secret soul in all thy sorrow shares;

But one choice blessing (such is Jove's high will)

Has sweeten'd all thy bitter draught of ill:

Torn from thy country to no hapless end,

The gods have, in a master, given a friend.

Whatever frugal nature needs is thine

(For she needs little), daily bread and wine.

While I, so many wanderings past, and woes,

Live but on what thy poverty bestows."

So passed in pleasing dialogue away

The night; then down to short repose they lay;

Till radiant rose the messenger of day.

While in the port of Ithaca, the band

Of young Telemachus approach'd the land;

Their sails they loosed, they lash'd the mast aside,

And cast their anchors, and the cables tied:

Then on the breezy shore, descending, join

In grateful banquet o'er the rosy wine.

When thus the prince: "Now each his course pursue;

I to the fields, and to the city you.

Long absent hence, I dedicate this day

396

The Odyssey of Homer