FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88  
89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>   >|  
rs' slave to stand. LXXXIII. "'Enough, these monsters to escape; O take My life, and tear me as you will from day, Rather than these devour me!'--Scarce he spake, When from the mountains to the well-known bay, The shepherd Polyphemus gropes his way; Huge, hideous, horrible in shape and show, And visionless. A pine-trunk serves to stay And guide his footsteps, and around him go The sheep, his only joy and solace of his woe. LXXXIV. "Down came the giant, wading in the main, And rinsed his gory socket from the tide, Gnashing his teeth and moaning in his pain. On through the deep he stalks with awful stride, So tall, the billows scarcely wet his side. Forthwith our flight we hasten, prickt with fear, On board--'twas due--we let the suppliant hide, Then, mute and breathless, cut the stern-ropes clear, Bend to the emulous oar, and sweep the whitening mere. LXXXV. "He heard, and turned his footsteps to the sound. Short of its mark the huge arm idly fell Outstretched, and swifter than his stride he found The Ionian waves. Then rose a monstrous yell; All Ocean shudders and her waves upswell; Far off, Italia trembles with the roar, And AEtna groans through many a winding cell, And trooping to the call the Cyclops pour From wood and lofty hill, and crowding fill the shore. LXXXVI. "We see them scowling impotent, the band Of AEtna, towering to the stars above, An awful conclave! Tall as oaks they stand, Or cypresses--the lofty trees of Jove, Or cone-clad guardians of Diana's grove. Fain were we then, in agony of fear, To shake the canvas to the winds, and rove At random; natheless, we obey the seer, Who past those fatal rocks had warned us not to steer, LXXXVII. "Where Scylla here, and there Charybdis lies, And death lurks double. Backward we essay Our course, when lo, from out Pelorus flies The North-Wind, sent to waft us on our way. We pass the place where, mingling with the spray, Through narrow rocks Pantagia's stream outflows; We see low-lying Thapsus and the bay Of Megara. These shores the suppliant shows, Known from the time he shared his wandering chieftain's woes. LXXXVIII. "Far-stretcht against Plemmyrium's wave-beat shore An island lies, before Sicania's bay, Now called Ortygia--'twas its name of yore. Hither from distant Elis, legends say, Be
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88  
89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

footsteps

 

suppliant

 
stride
 

random

 

natheless

 

canvas

 
warned
 
towering
 

conclave

 
impotent

scowling

 
crowding
 

LXXXVI

 

guardians

 

cypresses

 

chieftain

 

wandering

 
shared
 

LXXXVIII

 
stretcht

Thapsus

 

Megara

 

shores

 

Plemmyrium

 

distant

 

Hither

 

legends

 

Ortygia

 

island

 
Sicania

called
 

outflows

 

Backward

 

double

 

Scylla

 
Charybdis
 

Pelorus

 

mingling

 
Through
 
narrow

stream

 

Pantagia

 

LXXXVII

 

solace

 

serves

 

LXXXIV

 

Gnashing

 

moaning

 

socket

 

wading