its bloom {99} quickly," from
[Greek: rheo,] (rheo) in the sense of shedding.[29] And this indeed it
does,--first calyx, then corolla;--you may translate it 'swiftly ruinous'
poppy, but notice, in connection with this idea, how it droops its head
_before_ blooming; an action which, I doubt not, mingled in Homer's thought
with the image of its depression when filled by rain, in the passage of the
Iliad, which, as I have relieved your memory of three unnecessary names of
poppy families, you have memory to spare for learning.

"[Greek: mekon d' hos heterose kare balen, het' eni kepoi]
[Greek: karpoi brithomene, notieisi te eiarineisin]
[Greek: hos heteros' emuse kare peleki barunthen.]"

"And as a poppy lets its head fall aside, which in a garden is loaded with
its fruit, and with the soft rains of spring, so the youth drooped his head
on one side; burdened with the helmet."

And now you shall compare the translations of this passage, with its
context, by Chapman and Pope--(or the school of Pope), the one being by a
man of pure English temper, and able therefore to understand pure Greek
temper; the other infected with all the faults of the falsely classical
school of the Renaissance.

First I take Chapman:--

"His shaft smit fair Gorgythion of Priam's princely race
Who in AEpina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace,
{100}
By Castianeira, that for form was like celestial breed.
And as a crimson poppy-flower, surcharged with his seed,
And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow,
So, a-oneside, his helmet's weight his fainting head did bow."

Next, Pope:--

"He missed the mark; but pierced Gorgythio's heart,
And drenched in royal blood the thirsty dart:
(Fair Castianeira, nymph of form divine,
This offspring added to King Priam's line).
As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain,
Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain,
So sinks the youth: his beauteous head, depressed
Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast."

13. I give you the two passages in full, trusting that you may so feel the
becomingness of the one, and the gracelessness of the other. But note
farther, in the Homeric passage, one subtlety which cannot enough be marked
even in Chapman's English, that his second word, [Greek: emuse], is
employed by him both of the stooping of ears of corn, under wind, and of
Troy stooping to its ruin;[30] and otherwise, in good Greek writers, the
word is marke