The train prepare a cruise of curious mould,
A cruise of fragrance, form’d of burnish'd gold;
Odour divine! whose soft refreshing streams
Sleek the smooth skin, and scent the snowy limbs.

Now mounting the gay seat, the silken reins
Shine in her hand : along the sounding plains
Swift fly the mules : nor rode the nymph alone;
Around, a bevy of bright damsels shone.
They seek the cisterns where Phæacian dames
Wash their fair garments in the limpid streams;
Where, gathering into depth from falling rills,
The lucid wave a spacious bason fills.
The mules unharness'd range beside the main,
Or crop the verdant herbage of the plain.

Then emulous the royal robes they lave, And plunge the vestures in the cleansing wave (The vestures cleansed o'erspread the shelly sand, Their snowy lustre whitens all the strand): Then with a short repast relieve their toil, And o’er their limbs diffuse ambrosial oil; And while the robes imbibe the solar ray, O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play (Their shining veils unbound). Along the skies Toss'd, and retoss'd, the ball incessant flies. They sport, they feast; Nausicaa lifts her voice, And warbling sweet, makes earth and heaven

rejoice. As when o'er Erymanth Diana roves, Or wide Täygetus' resounding groves; A silvan train the huntress-queen surrounds, Her rattling quiver from her shoulder sounds; Fierce in the sport, along the mountain's brow They bay the boar, or chase the bounding roe: High o'er the lawn, with more majestic pace, Above the nymphs she treads with stately grace:

Distinguish'd excellence the goddess proves ;
Exults Latona, as the virgin moves.
With equal grace Nausicaa trod the plain,
And shone transcendent o'er the beauteous train.

Meantime, (the care and favourite of the skies)
Wrapp'd in embowering shade, Ulysses lies,
His woes forgot! but Pallas now address'd
To break the bands of all composing rest.
Forth from her snowy hand Nausicaa threw
The various ball; the ball erroneous flew,
And swam the stream: loud shrieks the virgin train,
And the loud shriek redoubles from the main.
Waked by the shrilling sound, Ulysses rose,
And to the deafwoods,wailing,breathed his woes-

• Ah me! on what inhospitable coast, On what new region is Ulysses toss'd: Possess’d by wild barbarians fierce in arms; Or men whose bosom tender pity warms? What sounds are these that gather from the shores : The voice of nymphs that haunt the silvan bowers, The fair-hair’d Dryads of the shady wood; Or azure daughters of the silver flood; Or human voice? but, issuing from the shades, Why cease 1 straight to learn what sound invades?" Then, where the grove with leaves umbrageous

bends With forceful strength a branch the hero rends; Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads A wreathy foliage and concealing shades. As when a lion in the midnight hours, Beat by rude blasts, and wet with wintry showers, Descends terrific from the mountain's brow, With living flames his rolling eyeballs glow; With conscious strength elate, he bends his way Majestically fierce, to seize his prey

(The steer or stag); or with keen hunger bold
Springs o'er the fence, and dissipates the fold;
No less a terror, from the neighbouring groves
(Rough from the tossing surge) Ulysses moves:
Urged on by want, and recent from the storms,
The brackish ooze his manly grace deforms.
Wide o'er the shore with many a piercing cry
To rocks, to caves, the frighted virgins fly;
All but the nymph: the nymph stood fix'd alone,
By Pallas arm’d with boldness not her own.
Meantime in dubious thought the king awaits,
And self-considering, as he stands, debates;
Distant his mournful story to declare,
Or prostrate at her knee, address the prayer.
But fearful to offend, by wisdom sway'd,
At awful distance he accosts the maid

If from the skies a goddess, or if earth
(Imperial virgin) boast thy glorious birth,
To thee I bend! if in that bright disguise
Thou visit earth, a daughter of the skies,
Hail, Dian, hail! the huntress of the groves
So shines majestic, and so stately moves,
So breathes an air divine! But if thy race
Be mortal, and this earth thy native place,
Bless'd is the father from whose loins you sprung,
Bless' is the mother at whose breast you hung,
Bless'd are the brethren who thy blood divide,
To such a miracle of charms allied :
Joyful they see applauding princes gaze,
When stately in the dance you swim the’ har-
monious maze.

[charms, But bless'd o'er all, the youth with heavenly Who clasps the bright perfection in his arms! Never, I never view'd till this bless'd hour Such finish'd grace! I gaze and I adore!

Thus seems the palm with stately honours crown'd
By Phoebus' altars; thus o’erlooks the ground
The pride of Delos. (By the Delian coast
I voyaged, leader of a warrior host, [flows;
But ah, how changed! from thence my sorrow
O fatal voyage, source of all my woes!)
Raptured I stood, and, as this hour amazed,
With reverence at the lofty wonder gazed:
Raptured I stand! for earth ne'er knew to bear
A plant so stately, or a nymph so fair.
Awed from access, I lift my suppliant hands;
For misery, O queen, before thee stands!
Twice ten tempestuous nights I rolld, resign’d
To roaring billows, and the warring wind;
Heaven bade the deep to spare! but Heaven, my
Spares only to inflict some mightier woe! (foe,
Inured to cares, to death in all its forms;
Outcast I rove, familiar with the storms!
Once more I view the face of humankind :
O let soft pity touch thy generous mind!
Unconscious of what air I breathe, I stand
Naked, defenceless, on a foreign land.
Propitious to my wants, a vest supply
To guard the wretched from the’ inclement sky:
So may the gods, who heaven and earth control,
Crown the chaste wishes of thy virtuous soul,
On thy soft hours their choicest blessings shed;
Bless’d with a husband be thy bridal bed;
Bless'd be thy husband with a blooming race,
And lasting union crown your blissful days.
The gods, when they supremely bless, bestow
Firm union on their favourites below:
Then envy grieves, with inly-pining hate,
The good exult, and heaven is in our state.'

To whom the nymph-O stranger, cease thy Wise is thy soul, but man is born to bear: [care; Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales, And the good suffers, while the bad prevails : Bear, with a soul resign'd, the will of Jove; Who breathes, must mourn: thy woes are from

above. But since thou tread'st our hospitable shore, 'Tis mine to bid the wretched grieve no more, To clothe the naked, and thy way to guide Know, the Phæacian tribes this land divide; From great Alcinoüs' royal loins I spring, A happy nation, and a happy king.' Then to her maids~ Why, why, ye coward train, These fears, this flight? ye fear, and fly in vain. Dread

ye

a foe? dismiss that idle dread, 'Tis death with hostile steps these shores to tread: Safe in the love of Heaven, an ocean flows Around our realm, a barrier from the foes; 'Tis ours this son of sorrow to relieve, Cheer the sad heart, nor let affection grieve. By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent. Then food supply, and bathe his fainting limbs Where waving shades obscure the mazy streams.'

Obedient to the call, the chief they guide To the calm current of the secret tide; Close by the stream a royal dress they lay, A vest and robe, with rich embroidery gay: Then unguents in a vase of gold supply, That breathed a fragrance through the balmy sky.

To them the king—No longer I detain Your friendly care; retire, ye virgin train ! Retire, while from my wearied limbs I lave The foul pollution of the briny wave: