Then bending to the stroke, the active train

Plunge all at once their oars, and cleave the main.

While to the shore the rapid vessel flies, Our swift approach the Siren quire descries; Celestial music warbles from their tongue, And thus the sweet deluders tune the song"O stay, Q pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay! O cease thy course, and listen to our lay! Bless'd is the man ordain'd our voice to hear, The song instructs the soul, and charms the ear. Approach! thy soul shall into raptures rise! Approach! and learn new wisdom from the wise! We know whate'er the kings of mighty name Achieved at Ilion in the field of fame; Whate'er beneath the sun's bright journey lies. O stay, and learn new wisdom from the wise!" "Thus the sweet charmers warbled o'er the main; My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain; I give the sign, and struggle to be free:

Swift row my mates, and shoot along the sea!
New chains they add, and rapid urge the way,
Till, dying off, the distant sounds decay:
Then scudding swiftly from the dangerous ground,
The deafen'd ear unlock'd, the chains unbound.
Now all at once tremendous scenes unfold;
Thunder'd the deeps, the smoking billows roll'd!
Tumultuous waves embroil'd the bellowing flood:
All trembling, deafen'd, and aghast we stood!
No more the vessel plough'd the dreadful wave,
Fear seized the mighty, and unnerved the brave;
Each dropp'd his oar: but swift from man to man
With look serene I turn'd, and thus began
"O friends! Oh often tried in adverse storms!
With ills familiar in more dreadful forms!

Deep in the dire Cyclopean den you lay,
Yet safe return'd-Ulysses led the way.
Learn courage hence! and in my care confide:
Lo! still the same Ulysses is your guide!
Attend my words! your oars incessant ply;
Strain every nerve, and bid the vessel fly.
If from yon justling rocks and wavy war
Jove safety grants, he grants it to your care.
And thou whose guiding hand directs our way,
Pilot, attentive listen and obey; [waves
Bear wide thy course, nor plough those angry
Where rolls yon smoke, yon tumbling ocean raves:
Steer by the higher rock; lest whirl'd around
We sink, beneath the circling eddy drown'd."
While yet I speak, at once their oars they
seize,

Stretch to the stroke, and brush the working seas.
Cautious the name of Scylla I suppress'd;
That dreadful sound had chill'd the boldest breast.
'Meantime, forgetful of the voice divine,
All dreadful bright my limbs in armour shine;
High on the deck I take my dangerous stand,
Two glittering javelins lighten in my hand;
Prepared to whirl the whizzing spear I stay,
Till the fell fiend arise to seize her prey.
Around the dungeon, studious to behold
The hideous pest, my labouring eyes I roll'd;
In vain! the dismal dungeon, dark as night,
Veils the dire monster, and confounds the sight.
Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep

dismay,

We bend our course, and stem the desperate way; Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,

And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.

When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves;
They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise,
Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze;
Eternal mists obscure the' aerial plain,
And high above the rock she spouts the main !
When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides,
She drains the ocean with the refluent tides:
The rock rebellows with a thundering sound;
Deep, wondrous deep below, appears the ground.
'Struck with despair, with trembling hearts
we view'd

The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood;
When lo! fierce Scylla stoop'd to seize her prey,
Stretch'd her dire jaws, and swept six men away;
Chiefs of renown! loud echoing shrieks arise;
I turn and view them quivering in the skies;
They call, and aid with outstretch'd arms implore:
In vain they call! those arms are stretch'd no more.
As from some rock that overhangs the flood,
The silent fisher casts the' insidious food,
With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies:
So the foul monster lifts her prey on high,
So pant the wretches, struggling in the sky;
In the wide dungeon she devours her food,
And the flesh trembles while she churns the blood.
Worn as I am with griefs, with care decay'd;
Never, I never, scene so dire survey'd!
My shivering blood, congeal'd, forgot to flow:
Aghast I stood, a monument of woe!

'Now from the rocks the rapid vessel flies, And the hoarse din like distant thunder dies; To Sol's bright isle our voyage we pursue, And now the glittering mountains rise to view.

There, sacred to the radiant god of day,
Graze the fair herds, the flocks promiscuous stray;
Then suddenly was heard along the main
To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train!
Straight to my anxious thoughts the sound convey'd
The words of Circè and the Theban shade;
Warn'd by their awful voice these shores to shun,
With cautious fears oppress'd, I thus begun—
"O friends! Oh ever exercised in care!
Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what
ye hear!

To fly these shores the prescient Theban shade
And Circè warns! O be their voice obey'd!
Some mighty woe relentless Heaven forebodes:
Fly these dire regions, and revere the gods!"

While yet I spoke, a sudden sorrow ran
Through every breast, and spread from man to man,
Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began-

"O cruel thou! some fury sure has steel'd
That stubborn soul, by toil untaught to yield!
From sleep debarr'd, we sink from woes to woes;
And, cruel, enviest thou a short repose?
Still must we restless rove, new seas explore,
The sun descending, and so near the shore?
And lo! the night begins her gloomy reign,
And doubles all the terrors of the main.

Oft in the dead of night loud winds arise,

Lash the wild surge, and bluster in the skies;
Oh should the fierce south-west his rage display,
And toss with rising storms the watery way,
Though gods descend from heaven's aerial plain
To lend us aid, the gods descend in vain :
Then while the night displays her awful shade,
Sweet time of slumber! be the night obey'd!

Haste ye to land! and when the morning ray Sheds her bright beams, pursue the destined way." A sudden joy in every bosom rose;

So will'd some demon, minister of woes!

To whom with grief-" O swift to be undone, Constrain'd I act what wisdom bids me shun. But yonder herds and yonder flocks forbear; Attest the heavens, and call the gods to hear: Content, an innocent repast display, By Circè given, and fly the dangerous prey."

Thus I: and while to shore the vessel flies, With hands uplifted they attest the skies ; Then where a fountain's gurgling waters play, They rush to land, and end in feasts the day: They feed; they quaff; and now (their hunger fled) Sigh for their friends devour'd, and mourn the dead. Nor cease the tears, till each in slumber shares A sweet forgetfulness of human cares.

'Now far the night advanced her gloomy reign, And setting stars roll'd down the azure plain: When, at the voice of Jove, wild whirlwinds rise, And clouds and double darkness veil the skies; The moon, the stars, the bright etherial host, Seem as extinct, and all their splendours lost; The furious tempest roars with dreadful sound: Air thunders, rolls the ocean, groans the ground. All night it raged; when morning rose, to land We haul'd our bark, and moor'd it on the strand, Where in a beauteous grotto's cool recess Dance the green Nereids of the neighbouring seas. There, while the wild winds whistled o'er the

main,

Thus careful I address'd the listening train"O friends, be wise! nor dare the flocks destroy Of these fair pastures:-if ye touch, ye die.