The Christian Scholar :: :: University of Virginia Library

“In portals of the Goddess now they stood,
And Circe heard, who sitting at the loom
Sung with melodious voice that fill'd the wood;
A woof she wrought of bright ambrosial bloom,
Divine the work, and graceful hues illume;
Then first Polites spoke, of men the king,
‘O friends, what sweetness charms the sylvan gloom,
That all around the very pavements ring,
Is it a mortal voice, or doth a Goddess sing?’

“Thus as he spoke they call'd, and lo, were seen
Bright portals opening, and with greeting kind,
Inviting all, advanced the enchantress Queen.
They enter'd in, heedless, secure, and blind,
Eurylochus alone remain'd behind,
Suspecting guile: she leads within, and there
Before them sets, on downy seats reclin'd,
Press'd milk, and honey fresh, and wheaten fare,
And blends the Pramnian wine;—all drugg'd with fatal care.

135

“She gave—and straightway as they drank the wine,
They drank oblivion of their native land,
Transform'd anon they put on forms of swine,
Head, voice, and bristling limbs, by her dread wand
Stricken, and pent in sties at her command.
While all within, their sorrows to confound,
The minds of men remain'd; she with her hand
Strews acorns, mast, and cornel fruits around,
While swine with swine they fed, low grovelling on the ground.”

ON THE FOREGOING.

Surely, said Hope, if rest be in the world,
A home wherein the soul shall find repose,
'Tis in this sea-girt dell, where calmly curl'd
The smoke amid the trees , and welcome shews
Of peaceful hearths within,—or roofs disclose
Sweetly embosom'd haunts 'mid woodland swells,
And sounds of song come forth, and Music's close
Of ease and grateful rest and pleasure tells;
'Tis there the enchantress Queen, deluding Circe, dwells.

They who from Lotus-eaters with disdain
And loathing turn, charm'd with her voice so sweet

136

Unheedingly will join with Circe's train,
Will of her proffer'd viands sit and eat,
And eating find it death with no retreat;
Such magic hath transforming Pleasure's guise,
They once were men which throng her haunted seat,
Now lions, wolves, or inmates of the sties ,
As Pleasure feeds in each the sin that in him lies.

There is an herb which wingèd Hermes gives ,
The wise who blend in faith that sovereign flower
May of those pleasures taste, and yet may live;
Such power hath grace Divine: but if her bower
Thou enter'st, long delays and shadows lower
Upon thine after-course and Hades' gloom:
And well for him who so hath bound her power
That she may wisdom speak of things to come ,
Of dangers, shades, and shoals that hence must be his doom.

And e'en for him who with the swine hath fed
On husks in foreign lands and far from home,
For him there is a rising from the Dead ,
When his Deliverer and his Lord shall come

137

And look upon his sorrows—thence to roam
No longer, taught by suffering; and again
Lead him a weeping wanderer from the tomb,
Make him anew, and give to sit with men,
In City of our God an honour'd denizen.

Od. x. 149.

Od., b. x. 218.

Od., b. x. 302.

B. x. 504.

B. x. 395.

B. x. 398, 399.