Pallas in a council of the Gods complains of the detention of Ulyffes in the island of Calypfo whereupon Mercury is fent to command his removal. The feat of Calypf, defcribed. She confents with much difficulty; and Ulyffes builds a vessel with his own bands, in which be embarks. Neptune overtakes bim with a terrible tempeft, in which he is shipwrecked, and in the last danger of death : till Leucothea, a Sea Goddess, affists bim, and after innumerable perils, be gets afbore on Pheacia.

75

She fate, and fung: the rocks refound her lays;
The cave was brighten'd with a rising blaze:
Cedar and frankincenfe, an odorous pile,
Flam'd on the hearth, and wide perfum'd the isle;
While the with work and fong the time divides,
15 And through the loom the golden fhuttle guides.
Without the grot a various fylvan scene 80
Appear'd around, and groves of living green;
Poplars and alders ever quivering play'd,
And nodding cyprefs form'd a fragrant fhade;
On whofe high branches, waving with the ftorm,
The birds of broadeft wing their manfion form, 85
The chough, the fea-mew, the loquacious crow,
And scream aloft, and fkim the deeps below.
Depending vines the fhelving caverns fcreen,
25 With purple clufters blufhing through the green.
Four limpid fountains from the clefts diftil; 907
And every fountain pours a feveral rill,

Her Hero's danger touch'd the pitying Power, 10
The nymph's feducements, and the n..gic bower.
Thus fhe began her plaint: Immortal Jove!
And you who fill the blissful feats above!
Let kings no more with gentle mercy fway,
Or blets a people willing to obey,
But crush the nations with an iron rod,
And every monarch be the fcourge of God:
If from your thoughts Ulyffes you remove,
Who rul'd his fubjects with a father's love.
Sole in an ifle, encircled by the main,
Abandon'd, banish'd from his native reign,
Unbleft he fighs, detain'd by lawlefs charms,
And prefs'd unwilling in Calypfo's arms.
Nor friends are there, nor veffels to convey,
Nor oars to cut th' immeafurable way.
And now fierce traitors, ftudious to destroy
His only fon, their ambush'd fraud employ;
Who, pious, following his great father's fame,
To facred Pylos and to Sparta came.

20

In mazy windings wandering down the hill:
Where bloomy meads with vivid greens were
crown'd,

And glowing violets threw odours round,
A fcene, where if a God should caft his fight, 95
A God might gaze, and wander with delight!
Joy touch'd the meffenger of heaven: he stay'd
Entranc'd, and all the blifsful haunt furvey'd.
Him, entering in the cave, Calypfo knew;
For Powers celeftial to each other's view
Stand ftill confeft, though diftant far they lie

But fad Ulyffes, by himself apart,

100

105

40 Pour'd the big forrows of his fwelling heart;
All on the lonely fhore he fate to weep,
And roll'd his eyes around the restless deep;
Tow'rd his lov'd coaft he roll'd his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm'd with rifing grief, they stream'd
again.

45

Then thus to Hermes the command was given : To 'habitants of earth, or sea, or sky.
Hermes, thou chofen meffenger of heaven!
Go, to the nymph be these our orders borne:
'Tis Jove's decree, Ulyffes fhall return:
The patient man fhall view his old abodes,
Nor help'd by mortal hand, nor guiding Gods:
In twice ten days fhall fertile Sheria find,
Alone, and floating to the wave and wind.
The bold Phæacians there, whofe haughty line
Is mix'd with Gods, half human, half divine,
The chief fhall honour as fome heavenly gueft,
And swift tranfport him to his place of reft.
His veffels loaded with a plenteous ftore
Of brafs, of veftures, and refplendent ore
(A richer prize than if his joyful ifle
Receiv'd him charg'd with flion's noble fpoi!).
His friends, his country, he fhall fee, though late;
Such is our fovereign will, and fuch is fate.

Now graceful feated on her fhining throne,
To Hermes thus the nymph divine begun: 110
God of the golden wand! on what beheft
Arriv't thon here, an unexpected guelt?
Lov'd as thou art, thy free injun&ions lay;
"Tis mine with joy and duty to obey.
Till how a ftranger, in a happy hour
Approach, and taft: the dainties of my bower.
Thus having fpoke, the nymph the table spread
55(Ambrofial cates, with nectar rofy-red);
Hermes the hospitable rite partook,
Divine refection! then, recruited, fpoke:

He fpoke. The God who mounts the winged winds

60

Faft to his feet the golden pinions binds,
That high through fields of air his flight fuftain
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the boundless main.
He grafps the wand that caufes fleep to fly,
Or in foft flumbers feals the wakeful eye :
Then fhoots from heaven to high Pieria's fteep,
And floops incumbent on the rolling deep.
So watery fowl, that feek their fifhy food,
With wings expanded o'er the foaming flood,
Now failing fmooth the level furface fweep,
Now dip their pinions in the briny deep.
Thus o'er the world of waters Hermes flew,
Till now the diftant ifland rofe in view:
Then, fwift afcending from the azure wave,
He took the path that winded to the cave.
Large was the grot, in which the nymph
found
{crown'd);
(The fair-hair'd nymph with every beauty

115

1 20

What mov'd this journey from my native sky,
A Goddefs afks, nor can a God deny :
Hear then the truth. By mighty Jove's command,
Unwilling have I trod this pleating land;
For who, felf-mov'd, with weary wings would

sweep

125

Such length of ocean and unmeafur'd deep :
A world of waters! far from all the ways
65 Where men frequent, or facred altars blaze?
But to Jove's will fubmiflion we must pay;
What power fo great to dare to difobey?
A man, he fays, a man refides with thee,
Of all his kind moft worn with mifery:
The Greeks (whofe arms for nine long years em-

130

70

1

1

Hence on the guilty race her vengeance hurl'd,
With forms purfu'd them through the liquid

world.

There all his veffels funk beneath the wave!

There all his dear companions found their grave! 140
Sav'd from the jaws of death by Heaven's decree,
The tempeft drove him to these fhores and thee.
Him Jove now orders to his native lands
Straight to difmifs; so destiny commands:
Impatient Fate his near return attends,
And calls him to his country and his friends.

Ev'n to her inmoft foul the Goddess shook;
Then thus her anguish and her paffion broke :
Ungracious Gods with fpite and envy curft!
Still to your own æthereal race the worst!
Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,
And love, the only fweet of life, destroy.
Did ever Goddefs by her charms engage

A favour'd mortal, and not feel your rage?
So when Aurora fought Orion's love,
Her joys difturb'd your blissful hours above,
Till, in Ortygia, Dian's winged dart
Had pierc'd the hapless hunter to the heart.
So when the covert of the thrice-var'd field
Saw ftately Ceres to her paffion yield,
Scarce could Iafion tafte her heavenly charms,
But Jove's fwift lightning fcorch'd him in

arms.

And is it now my turn, ye mighty Powers!
Am I the envy of your blifsful bowers?
A man, an outcast to the form and wave,
It was my crime to pity, and to fave;
When he who thunders rent his bark in twain,
And funk his brave companions in the main.
Alone, abar don'd, in mid seean toft,

145

155

160

her

There fate all defolate, and figh'd alone,
With echoing forrows made the mountains groan,
And roll'd his eyes o'er all the restless main,
'T'ill, dimm'd with rifing grief, they stream'd a
gain.↓

210

215

Here, on his musing mood the Goddess prest, 205
Approaching foft; and thus the chief addrest a
Unhappy man! to wafting foes a prey,
No more in forrows languish life away.
Free as the winds I give thee now to rove-
Go, fell the timber of yon lofty grove,
And form a raft, and build the rifing ship,
Sublime to bear thee o'er the gloomy deep.
To ftore the veffel let the care be mine,
With water from the rock, and rofy wine,
And life fuftaining bread, and fair array,
And profperous gales to waft thee on the way.
Thefe, if the Gods with my defires comply,
(The Gods, alas! more mighty far than I,
And better skill'd in dark events to come)
In fhall land thee at thy native home.
peace
With fighs, Ulyffes heard the words she spoke,
Then thus his melancholy filence broke:
Some other motive, Goddess! fways thy mind,
(Some close defign, or turn of womankind)
Nor my return the end, nor this the way,
On a flight raft to pass the fwelling fea,
Huge, horrid, vaft! where scarce in fafety fails
The best-built fhip, though Jove infpire the gales.
The bold propofal how fhall I fulfil,

220

225

230

165 Dark as I am, unconscious of thy will?
Swear then thou mean'ft not what my foul fore-
bodes;

Swear by the folemn oath that binds the Gods.
Him, while he spoke, with smiles Calypfo ey'd,

The fport of winds, and driven from every coaft, 170 And gently grafp'd his hand, and thus reply'd:

Hicher this man of miferies I led,

Receiv'd the friendless, and the hungry fed;
Nay promis'd (vainly promis'd) to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
'Tis paft-and Jove decrees he fhall remove;
Gods as we are, we are but flaves to Jove.
Go then he may (he muft, if He ordain,
Try all thofe dangers, all thofe decps, again):
But never, never fhall Calypfo fend

175

To toils like these, her husband and her friend. 180
What fhips have 1, what failors to convey,
What oars to cut the long laborious way?
Yet, I'll direct the fafeft means to go:
That last advice is all I can beflow.

To her, the Power who bears the charming
rod:

Difmifs the man, nor irritate the God:
Prevent the rage of him who reigns above,
For what fo dreadful as the wrath of Jove?
Thus having faid, he cut the cleaving sky,
And in a moment vanish'd from her eye.
The nymph, obedient to divine command,
To feek Ulyffes pac d along the fand.
Him penfive on the lonely beach she found,
With ftreaming eyes in briny torrents drown'd,
And inly pining for his native shore:

For now the foft enchantress pleas'd no more:
For now, reluctant, and conftrain'd by charms,
Abfent he lay in her defiring arms,

In lumber wore the heavy night away,

185

1

This fhows thee, friend, by old experience taught,
And learn'd in all the wiles of human thought,
How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wife?
But hear, O earth! and hear, ye facred skies!
And thou, O Styx! whofe formidable floods
Glide through the fhades, and bind th' attesting
Gods!

240

No form'd defign, no meditated end,
I.urks in the counfel of thy faithful friend;
Kind the perfuafion, and fincere my aim;
The fame my practice, were my fate the fame.
Heaven has not curft me with a heart of steel, 245
But given the fenfe, to pity and to feel.

250

Thus having faid, the Goddess march'd before:
He trod her footsteps in the fandy fhore.
At the cool cave arriv'd, they took their state;
He fill'd the throne where Mercury had fate.
For him the nymph a rich repaft ordains,
Such as the mortal life of man fuftains;
Before herself were plac'd the cates divine,
190 Ambrofial banquet, and celestial wine.
Their hunger fatiate, and their thirst represt, 255
Thus fpoke Calypfo to her godlike guest:
Ulyffes (with a figh the thus began,

195

On rocks and fhures confum'd the tedious day; 200
VOL. VI.

O fprung from Gods! in wisdom more than man;
Is then thy home the paffion of thy heart?
part? 260
Thus wilt thou leave me, are w
Farewell! and ever joyful may'st thou be,
Nor break the tranfport with one thought of me.
But ah. Ulyffes wert thou given to know
What Fate yet dooms thee, yet, to undergo;
Dd

265

Thy heart might fettle in this feene of ease,
And ev'n these lighted charms might learn to
please.

A willing Goddess and immortal life
Might banish from thy mind an absent wife.
Am I inferior to a mortal dame?

270

330

Thy loom, Calypfo! for the fytyre fails
Supply'd the cloth, capacious of the gales.
With stays and cerdage laft he rigg'd the fhip,
And, rull'd on levers, launch'd her in the deep.
Four days were paft, and now the work com-
plate,

Shone the fifth morn: when from her facred feat
The nymph dismiss'd him, (odorous garments giv-
en)
335 [Heaven
And bath'd in fragrant oils that breath'd of
Then fill'd two goat-fkins with her hands divine,
275 With water one, and one with fable wine:

Lefs fuft my feature, lefs august my frame?
Or fhall the daughters of mankind compare
Their earth-born beauties with the heavenly fair?
Alas! for this (the prudent man replies)
Against Ulyffes fhall thy anger rife?
Lov'd and ador'd, oh Goddess as thou art,
Forgive the weakness of a human heart.
Though well I fee thy graces far above
The dear, though mortal, object of my love,
Of youth eternal well the difference know,
And the fhort date of fading charms below;
Yet every day, while abfent thus I roam,
I languifh to return and die at home.
Whate'er the Gods fhall deftine me to bear
Jn the black ocean, or the watery war,
'Tis mine to mafter with a conftant mind;
Enur'd to perils, to the worst refign'd.
By feas, by wars, fo many dangers run,
Still I can fuffer: their high will be done!

280

Of every kind, provifions heav'd aboard;
And the full decks with copious viends flor'd. 340
The Goddess, lait, a gentle breeze fupplies,
To curl old ocean, and to warm the fkies,

350

And now, rejoicing in the profperous gale,
With beating heart, Ulyffes fpreads his fails;
Plac'd at the helm he fate, and mark'd the skics, 345
Nor clos'd in fleep his ever-watchful eyes.
There view'd the Pleiads, and the Northern Team,
285 And great Orion's more refulgent beam,
To which, around the axle of the key
The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye:
Who fhines exalted on th' atherial plain,
Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main.
Far on the left thofe radiant fires to keep
The nymph directed, as he fail'd the deep.
Full feventeen nights he cut the foamy way: 355
The diftant land appear'd the following day:
Then fwell'd to fight Phæacia's dusky coast,
And woody mountains, half in vapours loft:
That lay before him, indiftin&t and vaft,
Like a broad fhield amid the watery waste.

290

Thus while he spoke, the beamy fun defcends,
And rifing night her friendly fhade extends.
To the clofe grot the lonely pair remove,
And flept delighted with the gifts of love.
When roly morning call'd them from their reft,
Ulyffes rob'd him in the cloak and vest.
The nymph's fair head a veil transparent grac'd, 295
Her fwelling loins a radiant zone embrac'd
With flowers of gold: an under robe, unbound,
In fnowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground.`
Forth iffuing thus, fhe gave him first to wield
A weighty axe with trueft temper steel'd,
And double edg'd; the handle fmooth and plain,
Wrought of the clouded olive's cafy grain;
And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy fway :
Then to the neighbouring foreft led the way.
On the lone island's utmoft verge there flood
Gf poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
Whofe leaflefs fummits to the fkies afpire,
Scorch'd by the fun, or fear'd by heavenly fire
(Already dry'd). Thefe pointing out to view,
The nymph juft fhow'd him, and with tears with-
drew.
310

300

305

Now toils the hero: trees on trees o'erthrown
Fall crackling round him, and the foreft groan:
Sudden, full twenty on the plain are ftrow'd,
And lopp'd, and lighten'd of their branchy load.
At equal angles thefe difpos'd to join,
315
He fmooth'd and fquar'd them, by the rule and line.
(The wimbles or the work Calypfo found)
With thofe he pierc'd them, and with clinchers
bound.

Long and capacious as a fhipwright forms
Some bark's broad bottom to out-ride the forms, 320
So large he built the raft: then ribb'd it strong
From space to space, and nail'd the planks along;
Thefe form'd the fides: the deck he fafhion'd laft;
Then o'er the yeffel rais'd the taper maft,
With croffing fail-yards dancing in the wind;
And to the helm the guiding rudder join'd
(With yielding ofiers fenc'd, to break the force
Offurging waves, and fteer the fteady course),

325

360

But him, thus voyaging the deeps below,
From far, on Solyme's aerial brow,
The King of Ocean faw, and seeing burn'd
(From Æthiopia's happy climes return'd;)
The raging monarch fhook his azure head,
And thus in fecret to his foul he said:
Heavens! how uncertain are the Power on
high?

Is then revers'd the fentence of the sky,
In one man's favour; while a diftant guest

I fhar'd fe,ure the Ethiopian feast ?.
Behold how near Phæacia's land he draws!
The land, affix'd by late's eternal laws
To end his toils. Is then our anger vain?
No; if this fceptre yet commands the main.

365

He fpoke, and high the forky trident hurl'd 375
Roils clouds on clouds, and stirs the watery world,
At once the face of earth the sea deforms,
Swells all the winds, and roufes all the ftorms.
Down rufh'd the night: caft, weft, together roar ;
And fouth, and north, roll mountains to the fhore;
Then fhook the hero, to defpair resign'd,
And queflion'd thus his yet unconquer'd mind :

385

Wretch that I am! what farther fates attend
This life of toils, and what my deftin'd end?
Too well, alas! the Island Goddess know,
On the black fea what perils should enfue.
New horrors now this deftin'd head enclose;
Unfill'd is yet the measure of my wocs;
With what a cloud the brows of heaven are crown'd!
What raging winds! what roaring waters round!
'Tis Jove himfelf the fwelling tempefts rears;
Death, prefent death, on every fide appears,

Happy! thrice happy! who, in battle flain,
Preft, in Atrides' caufe, the Trojan plain :
Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall;
Had fome diftinguish'd day renown'd my fall
(Such as was that, when showers of javelins fled
From conquering Troy around Achilles dead);
All Greece had paid me folemn funerals then,
And spread my glory with the fons of men.
A fhameful fate now hides my hapless head,
Un-wept, un-noted, and for ever dead!

395

Thus then I judge; while yet the planks sustain
The wild waves fury, here I fix'd remain :
But when their texture to the tempefts yields, 460
I launch adventurous on the liquid fields,
Join to the help of Gods the ftrength of man,
And take this method, fince the best I can.

465

While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold,
400The raging God a watery mountain roll'd;
Like a black fheet the whelming billow spread
Burfts o'er the float, and thunder'd on his head.
Planks, beams, difparted fly: the scatter'd wood
Rolls diverfe, and in fragments ftrows the flood.
So the rude Boreas, o'er the fields new-fhorn, 470
Toffes and drives the fcatter'd heaps of corn.
And now a fingle beam the chief bestrides;
There pois'd a while above the bounding tides,
His limbs difcumbers of the clinging vest,
And binds the facred cincture round his breast; 475
Then prone on ocean in a moment flung,
Stretch'd wide his eager arms, and shot the feas
All naked now, on heaving billows laid, [along.
Stern Neptune ey'd him, and contemptuous said;

410

A mighty wave rufh'd o'er him as he fpoke,
The raft is cover'd, and the maft it broke;
Swept from the deck, and from the rudder torn, 405
Far on the fwelling furge the chief was borne :
While by the howling tempest rent in twain
Flew fail and fail-yards rattling o'er the main.
Long prefs'd, he heav'd bench the weighty wave,
Clogg'd by the cumbrous veft Calypfo gave:
At length, emerging from his noftrils wide
And gushing mouth, effus'd the briny tide,
Ev'n then not mindlefs of his last retreat,
He feiz'd the raft, and leapt into his feat.
Strong with the fear of death. The rolling flood 415
Now here, now there, impell'd the floating wood.
As when a heap of gather'd thorns is caft
Now to, now fro, before th' autumnal blaft;
Together clung, it rolls around the field;
So roll'd the float, and fo its texture held:
And now the fouth, and now the north, hear
And now the caft the foamy floods obey, [fway,
And now the weft-wind whirls it o'er the fea.
The wandering chief, with toils on toils oppreft,
Leucothea faw, and pity touch'd her breast
(Herself a mortal once, of Cadmus' strain,
But now an azure fifter of the main).
Swift as a fea-mew fpringing from the flood,
All radiant on the raft the Goddess flood:
Then thus address'd him: Thou, whom Heaven
decrees

To Neptune's wrath, ftern tyrant of the feas,
(Unequal conteft! not his rage and power,
Great as he is, fuch virtue fhall de vour.
What I fuggeft, thy wildom will perform;
Forfake thy float, and leave it to the storm;
Strip off thy garments; Neptune's fury brave
With naked ftrength, and plunge into the wave.
To reach Phæacia all thy nerves extend,
There Fate decrees thy miferies fhall end.
This heavenly scarf beneath thy bofom bind,
And live; give all thy terrors to the wind,
Soon as thy arms the happy fhore fhall gain,
Return the gift, and caft it on the main;
Obferve my orders, and with heed obey,
Caft it far off, and turn thy eyes away.
With that her hand the facred veil beftows,

420

425

430

435

Go, learn'd in woes, and other woes effay! 480
Go, wander helpless on the watery way :
Thus, thus find out the deftin'd fhore, and then
(If Jove ordains it) mix with happier men.
Whate'er thy fate, the ills our wrath could raise
Shall laft remember'd in thy best of days. 485

This faid, his fea-green steeds divide the foam,
And reach high Æge and the towery dome.
Now, fcarce withdrawn the fierce earth fhaking

power.

Jove's daughter, Pallas, watch'd the favouring hour,
Back to their caves the bade the winds to fly, 490
And hush'd the bluftering brethren of the sky.
The drier blafts alone of Boreas fway,
And bear him soft on broken waves away;
With gentle force impelling to that fhore,
Where Fate has deftin'd he fhall toil no more. 495
And now two nights, and now two days were past,
Since wide he wander'd on the watery wafte:
Heav'd on the furge with intermitting breath,
And hourly panting in the arms of death.
The third fair morn now blaz'd upon the main; 500
Then glafly smooth lay all the liquid plain :
The winds were huth'd, the billows fcarcely curl'd,
And a dead filence itill'd the watery world;
When lifted on a ridgy wave he 'fpies

440 The land at diftance, and with fharpen'd eyes, 505
As pious children joy with vast delight

When a lov'd fire revives before their fight

(Who, lingering long has call'd on death in vain, Fix'd by fome dæmon to his bed of pain,

445

Till Heaven by miracle his life restore);
So joys Ulyffes at th' appearing shore,

Then down the deeps the div'd from whence fhe And fees, (and labours onward as he fees)
rofe;

A moment fnatch'd the fhining form away,
And all was cover'd with the curling fea.
Struck with amaze, yet ftill to doubt inclin'd, 450
He stands fufpended, and explores his mind.
What shall I do? Unhappy me! who knows
But other Gods intend me other woes?
Whoe'er thou art, I fhall not blindly join
Thy pleaded reafon, but confult with mine:
For fcarce in ken appears that distant isle,
Thy voice foretels me hall conclude my toil.

513

The rifing forests and the tufted trees.
And now, as near approaching as the found
Of human voice the liftening ear may wound, 585
Amidst the rocks he hears a hollow roar
Of murmuring furges breaking on the shore;
Nor peaceful port was there, nor winding bay,
To fhield the veffel from the rolling fea,

But cliffs, and fhaggy fhores, a dreadful fight! $20
455 All-rough with rocks, with foaming billows white.
Fear feiz'd his flacken'd limbs and beating heart;
As thus commun'd he with his foul apart;
D dz