William Cowper- Collected Poetical Works

by William Cowper

  The sorrow into which we sudden fell

  Shall pause. Come — now remember we the feast;

  Pour water on our hands, for we shall find,

  (Telemachus and I) no dearth of themes

  For mutual converse when the day shall dawn. 270

  He ended; then, Asphalion, at his word,

  Servant of glorious Menelaus, poured

  Pure water on their hands, and they the feast

  Before them with keen appetite assail’d.

  But Jove-born Helen otherwise, meantime,

  Employ’d, into the wine of which they drank

  A drug infused, antidote to the pains

  Of grief and anger, a most potent charm

  For ills of ev’ry name. Whoe’er his wine

  So medicated drinks, he shall not pour 280

  All day the tears down his wan cheek, although

  His father and his mother both were dead,

  Nor even though his brother or his son

  Had fall’n in battle, and before his eyes.

  Such drugs Jove’s daughter own’d, with skill prepar’d,

  And of prime virtue, by the wife of Thone,

  Ægyptian Polydamna, giv’n her.

  For Ægypt teems with drugs, yielding no few

  Which, mingled with the drink, are good, and many

  Of baneful juice, and enemies to life. 290

  There ev’ry man in skill medicinal

  Excels, for they are sons of Pæon all.

  That drug infused, she bade her servant pour

  The bev’rage forth, and thus her speech resumed.

  Atrides! Menelaus! dear to Jove!

  These also are the sons of Chiefs renown’d,

  (For Jove, as pleases him, to each assigns

  Or good or evil, whom all things obey)

  Now therefore, feasting at your ease reclin’d,

  Listen with pleasure, for myself, the while, 300

  Will matter seasonable interpose.

  I cannot all rehearse, nor even name,

  (Omitting none) the conflicts and exploits

  Of brave Ulysses; but with what address

  Successful, one atchievement he perform’d

  At Ilium, where Achaia’s sons endured

  Such hardship, will I speak. Inflicting wounds

  Dishonourable on himself, he took

  A tatter’d garb, and like a serving-man

  Enter’d the spacious city of your foes. 310

  So veil’d, some mendicant he seem’d, although

  No Greecian less deserved that name than he.

  In such disguise he enter’d; all alike

  Misdeem’d him; me alone he not deceived

  Who challeng’d him, but, shrewd, he turn’d away.

  At length, however, when I had myself

  Bathed him, anointed, cloath’d him, and had sworn

  Not to declare him openly in Troy

  Till he should reach again the camp and fleet,

  He told me the whole purpose of the Greeks. 320

  Then, (many a Trojan slaughter’d,) he regain’d

  The camp, and much intelligence he bore

  To the Achaians. Oh what wailing then

  Was heard of Trojan women! but my heart

  Exulted, alter’d now, and wishing home;

  For now my crime committed under force

  Of Venus’ influence I deplored, what time

  She led me to a country far remote,

  A wand’rer from the matrimonial bed,

  From my own child, and from my rightful Lord 330

  Alike unblemish’d both in form and mind.

  Her answer’d then the Hero golden-hair’d.

  Helen! thou hast well spoken. All is true.

  I have the talents fathom’d and the minds

  Of num’rous Heroes, and have travell’d far

  Yet never saw I with these eyes in man

  Such firmness as the calm Ulysses own’d;

  None such as in the wooden horse he proved,

  Where all our bravest sat, designing woe

  And bloody havoc for the sons of Troy. 340

  Thou thither cam’st, impell’d, as it should seem,

  By some divinity inclin’d to give

  Victory to our foes, and with thee came

  Godlike Deiphobus. Thrice round about

  The hollow ambush, striking with thy hand

  Its sides thou went’st, and by his name didst call

  Each prince of Greece feigning his consort’s voice.

  Myself with Diomede, and with divine

  Ulysses, seated in the midst, the call

  Heard plain and loud; we (Diomede and I) 350

  With ardour burn’d either to quit the horse

  So summon’d, or to answer from within.

  But, all impatient as we were, Ulysses

  Controul’d the rash design; so there the sons

  Of the Achaians silent sat and mute,

  And of us all Anticlus would alone

  Have answer’d; but Ulysses with both hands

  Compressing close his lips, saved us, nor ceased

  Till Pallas thence conducted thee again.

  Then thus, discrete, Telemachus replied. 360

  Atrides! Menelaus! prince renown’d!

  Hard was his lot whom these rare qualities

  Preserved not, neither had his dauntless heart

  Been iron, had he scaped his cruel doom.

  But haste, dismiss us hence, that on our beds

  Reposed, we may enjoy sleep, needful now.

  He ceas’d; then Argive Helen gave command

  To her attendant maidens to prepare

  Beds in the portico with purple rugs

  Resplendent, and with arras, overspread, 370

  And cover’d warm with cloaks of shaggy pile.

  Forth went the maidens, bearing each a torch,

  And spread the couches; next, the herald them

  Led forth, and in the vestibule the son

  Of Nestor and the youthful Hero slept,

  Telemachus; but in the interior house

  Atrides, with the loveliest of her sex

  Beside him, Helen of the sweeping stole.

  But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,

  Glow’d in the East, then from his couch arose 380

  The warlike Menelaus, fresh attir’d;

  His faulchion o’er his shoulders slung, he bound

  His sandals fair to his unsullied feet,

  And like a God issuing, at the side

  Sat of Telemachus, to whom he spake.

  Hero! Telemachus! what urgent cause

  Hath hither led thee, to the land far-famed

  Of Lacedæmon o’er the spacious Deep?

  Public concern or private? Tell me true.

  To whom Telemachus discrete replied. 390

  Atrides! Menelaus! prince renown’d!

  News seeking of my Sire, I have arrived.

  My household is devour’d, my fruitful fields

  Are desolated, and my palace fill’d

  With enemies, who while they mutual wage

  Proud competition for my mother’s love,

  My flocks continual slaughter, and my beeves.

  For this cause, at thy knees suppliant, I beg

  That thou wouldst tell me his disastrous end,

  If either thou beheld’st with thine own eyes 400

  His death, or from some wand’rer of the Greeks

  Hast heard it; for no common woes, alas!

  Was he ordain’d to share ev’n from the womb.

  Neither through pity or o’erstrain’d respect

  Flatter me, but explicit all relate

  Which thou hast witness’d. If my noble Sire

  E’er gratified thee by performance just

  Of word or deed at Ilium, where ye fell

  So num’rous slain in fight, oh recollect

  Now his fidelity, and tell me true! 410

  Then Menelau
s, sighing deep, replied.

  Gods! their ambition is to reach the bed

  Of a brave man, however base themselves.

  But as it chances, when the hart hath lay’d

  Her fawns new-yean’d and sucklings yet, to rest

  Within some dreadful lion’s gloomy den,

  She roams the hills, and in the grassy vales

  Feeds heedless, till the lion, to his lair

  Return’d, destroys her and her little-ones,

  So them thy Sire shall terribly destroy. 420

  Jove, Pallas and Apollo! oh that such

  As erst in well-built Lesbos, where he strove

  With Philomelides, and threw him flat,

  A sight at which Achaia’s sons rejoic’d,

  Such, now, Ulysses might assail them all!

  Short life and bitter nuptials should be theirs.

  But thy enquiries neither indirect

  Will I evade, nor give thee false reply,

  But all that from the Antient of the Deep

  I have receiv’d will utter, hiding nought. 430

  As yet the Gods on Ægypt’s shore detained

  Me wishing home, angry at my neglect

  To heap their altars with slain hecatombs.

  For they exacted from us evermore

  Strict rev’rence of their laws. There is an isle

  Amid the billowy flood, Pharos by name,

  In front of Ægypt, distant from her shore

  Far as a vessel by a sprightly gale

  Impell’d, may push her voyage in a day.

  The haven there is good, and many a ship 440

  Finds wat’ring there from riv’lets on the coast.

  There me the Gods kept twenty days, no breeze

  Propitious granting, that might sweep the waves,

  And usher to her home the flying bark.

  And now had our provision, all consumed,

  Left us exhausted, but a certain nymph

  Pitying saved me. Daughter fair was she

  Of mighty Proteus, Antient of the Deep,

  Idothea named; her most my sorrows moved;

  She found me from my followers all apart 450

  Wand’ring (for they around the isle, with hooks

  The fishes snaring roamed, by famine urged)

  And standing at my side, me thus bespake.

  Stranger! thou must be ideot born, or weak

  At least in intellect, or thy delight

  Is in distress and mis’ry, who delay’st

  To leave this island, and no egress hence

  Canst find, although thy famish’d people faint.

  So spake the Goddess, and I thus replied.

  I tell thee, whosoever of the Pow’rs 460

  Divine thou art, that I am prison’d here

  Not willingly, but must have, doubtless, sinn’d

  Against the deathless tenants of the skies.

  Yet say (for the Immortals all things know)

  What God detains me, and my course forbids

  Hence to my country o’er the fishy Deep?

  So I; to whom the Goddess all-divine.

  Stranger! I will inform thee true. A seer

  Oracular, the Antient of the Deep,

  Immortal Proteus, the Ægyptian, haunts 470

  These shores, familiar with all Ocean’s gulphs,

  And Neptune’s subject. He is by report

  My father; him if thou art able once

  To seize and bind, he will prescribe the course

  With all its measured distances, by which

  Thou shalt regain secure thy native shores.

  He will, moreover, at thy suit declare,

  Thou favour’d of the skies! what good, what ill

  Hath in thine house befall’n, while absent thou

  Thy voyage difficult perform’st and long. 480

  She spake, and I replied — Thyself reveal

  By what effectual bands I may secure

  The antient Deity marine, lest, warn’d

  Of my approach, he shun me and escape.

  Hard task for mortal hands to bind a God!

  Then thus Idothea answer’d all-divine.

  I will inform thee true. Soon as the sun

  Hath climb’d the middle heav’ns, the prophet old,

  Emerging while the breezy zephyr blows,

  And cover’d with the scum of ocean, seeks 490

  His spacious cove, in which outstretch’d he lies.

  The phocæ also, rising from the waves,

  Offspring of beauteous Halosydna, sleep

  Around him, num’rous, and the fishy scent

  Exhaling rank of the unfathom’d flood.

  Thither conducting thee at peep of day

  I will dispose thee in some safe recess,

  But from among thy followers thou shalt chuse

  The bravest three in all thy gallant fleet.

  And now the artifices understand 500

  Of the old prophet of the sea. The sum

  Of all his phocæ numb’ring duly first,

  He will pass through them, and when all by fives

  He counted hath, will in the midst repose

  Content, as sleeps the shepherd with his flock.

  When ye shall see him stretch’d, then call to mind

  That moment all your prowess, and prevent,

  Howe’er he strive impatient, his escape.

  All changes trying, he will take the form

  Of ev’ry reptile on the earth, will seem 510

  A river now, and now devouring fire;

  But hold him ye, and grasp him still the more.

  And when himself shall question you, restored

  To his own form in which ye found him first

  Reposing, then from farther force abstain;

  Then, Hero! loose the Antient of the Deep,

  And ask him, of the Gods who checks thy course

  Hence to thy country o’er the fishy flood.

  So saying, she plunged into the billowy waste.

  I then, in various musings lost, my ships 520

  Along the sea-beach station’d sought again,

  And when I reach’d my galley on the shore

  We supp’d, and sacred night falling from heav’n,

  Slept all extended on the ocean-side.

  But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,

  Look’d rosy forth, pensive beside the shore

  I walk’d of Ocean, frequent to the Gods

  Praying devout, then chose the fittest three

  For bold assault, and worthiest of my trust.

  Meantime the Goddess from the bosom wide 530

  Of Ocean rising, brought us thence four skins

  Of phocæ, and all newly stript, a snare

  Contriving subtle to deceive her Sire.

  Four cradles in the sand she scoop’d, then sat

  Expecting us, who in due time approach’d;

  She lodg’d us side by side, and over each

  A raw skin cast. Horrible to ourselves

  Proved that disguise whom the pernicious scent

  Of the sea-nourish’d phocæ sore annoy’d;

  For who would lay him down at a whale’s side? 540

  But she a potent remedy devised

  Herself to save us, who the nostrils sooth’d

  Of each with pure ambrosia thither brought

  Odorous, which the fishy scent subdued.

  All morning, patient watchers, there we lay;

  And now the num’rous phocæ from the Deep

  Emerging, slept along the shore, and he

  At noon came also, and perceiving there

  His fatted monsters, through the flock his course

  Took regular, and summ’d them; with the first 550

  He number’d us, suspicion none of fraud

  Conceiving, then couch’d also. We, at once,

  Loud-shouting flew on him, and in our arms

  Constrain’d him fast; nor the sea-prophet old

  Cal
l’d not incontinent his shifts to mind.

  First he became a long-maned lion grim,

  Then dragon, panther then, a savage boar,

  A limpid stream, and an o’ershadowing tree.

  We persevering held him, till at length

  The Antient of the Deep, skill’d as he is 560

  In wiles, yet weary, question’d me, and said.

  Oh Atreus’ son, by what confed’rate God

  Instructed liest thou in wait for me,

  To seize and hold me? what is thy desire?

  So He; to whom thus answer I return’d.

  Old Seer! thou know’st; why, fraudful, should’st thou ask?

  It is because I have been prison’d long

  Within this isle, whence I have sought in vain

  Deliv’rance, till my wonted courage fails.

  Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) 570

  What God detains me, and my course forbids

  Hence to my country o’er the fishy Deep?

  So I; when thus the old one of the waves.

  But thy plain duty was to have adored

  Jove, first, in sacrifice, and all the Gods,

  That then embarking, by propitious gales

  Impell’d, thou might’st have reach’d thy country soon.

  For thou art doom’d ne’er to behold again

  Thy friends, thy palace, or thy native shores,

  Till thou have seen once more the hallow’d flood 580

  Of Ægypt, and with hecatombs adored

  Devout, the deathless tenants of the skies.

  Then will they speed thee whither thou desir’st.

  He ended, and my heart broke at his words,

  Which bade me pass again the gloomy gulph

  To Ægypt; tedious course, and hard to atchieve!

  Yet, though in sorrow whelm’d, I thus replied.

  Old prophet! I will all thy will perform.

  But tell me, and the truth simply reveal;

  Have the Achaians with their ships arrived 590

  All safe, whom Nestor left and I, at Troy?

  Or of the Chiefs have any in their barks,

  Or in their followers’ arms found a dire death

  Unlook’d for, since that city’s siege we closed?

  I spake, when answer thus the God return’d.

  Atrides, why these questions? Need is none

  That thou should’st all my secrets learn, which once

  Reveal’d, thou would’st not long dry-eyed remain.

  Of those no few have died, and many live;

  But leaders, two alone, in their return 600

  Have died (thou also hast had war to wage)

  And one, still living, roams the boundless sea.

  Ajax, surrounded by his galleys, died.

  Him Neptune, first, against the bulky rocks

  The Gyræ drove, but saved him from the Deep;

  Nor had he perish’d, hated as he was