Of the grim Lapithæ, and Theseus, drive, Drive crashing through their bones; they feel High on a jutting rock in the red stream Alcmena's dreadful son

Ply his bow; - such a price

The Gods exact for song:

To become what we sing.

They see the Indian

On his mountain lake;—but squalls
Make their skiff reel, and worms
In the unkind spring have gnawn

Their melon harvest to the heart-They see
The Scythian; - but long frosts

Parch them in winter time on the bare stepp, Till they too fade like grass; they crawl Like shadows forth in spring.

They see the merchants

On the Oxus stream; - but care

Must visit first them too, and make them pale.

Whether, through whirling sand,

A cloud of desert robber horse have burst

Upon their caravan; or greedy kings,

In the walled cities the way passes through, Crushed them with tolls; or fever airs,

On some great river's marge,

Mown them down, far from home.

They see the Heroes

Near harbor;-but they share

Their lives, and former violent toil in Thebes,

Seven-gated Thebes, or Troy;

Or where the echoing oars

Of Argo first

Startled the unknown sea.

The old Silenus

Came, lolling in the sunshine,

From the dewy forest coverts,

This way, at noon.

Sitting by me, while his Fauns
Down at the water side
Sprinkled and smoothed
His drooping garland,
He told me these things.

Ah, golden-haired, strangely smiling Goddess,

And thou, proved, much enduring,

Wave-tossed Wanderer!

Who can stand still?

Ye fade, ye swim, ye waver before me

The cup again!

Faster, faster,

O Circe, Goddess,

Let the wild, thronging train,

The bright procession

Of eddying forms,

Sweep through my soul!

THE PARTING OF ODYSSEUS AND CALYPSO.1 (From the Odyssey of Homer: translated by S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang.)

[ANDREW LANG: English man of letters; born in Scotland, March 31, 1844; educated at St. Andrews and at Balliol College. His writings have been of immense variety: best known are those on folklore and kindred subjects, as "Custom and Myth," "Cock Lane and Common Sense," his collections of "Fairy Books," etc.; his prose translations (with collaborators) of the Iliad and Odyssey; and his poems, in "Ballades in Blue China" and many other places.]

I.

Now the Dawn arose from her couch, from the side of the lordly Tithonus, to bear light to the immortals and to mortal 1 1 By permission of the publishers, Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

And lo, the gods were gathering to session, and among them Zeus, that thunders on high"

men.

And lo, the gods were gathering to session, and among them Zeus, that thunders on high, whose might is above all. And Athene told them the tale of the many woes of Odysseus, recalling them to mind; for near her heart was he that then abode in the dwelling of the nymph :

"Father Zeus, and all ye other blessed gods that live forever, henceforth let not any sceptered king be kind and gentle with all his heart, nor minded to do righteously, but let him alway be a hard man and work unrighteousness, for behold, there is none that remembereth divine Odysseus of the people whose lord he was, and was gentle as a father. Howbeit, as for him he lieth in an island suffering strong pains, in the halls of the nymph Calypso, who holdeth him perforce; so he may not reach his own country, for he hath no ships by him with oars, and no companions to send him on his way over the broad back of the sea. And now, again, they are set on slaying his beloved son on his homeward way, for he is gone to fair Pylos and to goodly Lacedæmon, to seek tidings of his father."

And Zeus, gatherer of the clouds, answered and spake unto her: " My child, what word hath escaped the door of thy lips? Nay, didst thou not thyself plan this device, that Odysseus may assuredly take vengeance on those men at his coming? As for Telemachus, do thou guide him by thine art, as well thou mayest, that so he may come to his own country all unharmed, and the wooers may return in their ship with their labor all in vain."

Therewith he spake to Hermes, his dear son: "Hermes, forasmuch as even in all else thou art our herald, tell unto the nymph of the braided tresses my unerring counsel, even the return of the patient Odysseus, how he is to come to his home, with no furtherance of gods or of mortal men. Nay, he shall sail on a well-bound raft, in sore distress, and on the twentieth day arrive at fertile Scheria, even at the land of the Phæacians, who are near of kin to the gods. And they shall give him all worship heartily as to a god, and send him on his way in a ship to his own dear country, with gifts of bronze and gold, and raiment in plenty, much store, such as never would Odysseus have won for himself out of Troy, yea, though he had returned unhurt with the share of the spoil that fell to him. On such wise is he fated to see his friends, and come to his high-roofed home and his own country."

So spake he, nor heedless was the messenger, the slayer of