William Cowper- Collected Poetical Works

by William Cowper

  Up, stranger! seek the city. I will lead

  Thy steps toward my royal Father’s house,

  Where all Phæacia’s Nobles thou shalt see.

  But thou (for I account thee not unwise) 320

  This course pursue. While through the fields we pass,

  And labours of the rural hind, so long

  With my attendants follow fast the mules

  And sumpter-carriage. I will be thy guide.

  But, once the summit gain’d, on which is built

  Our city with proud bulwarks fenced around,

  And laved on both sides by its pleasant port

  Of narrow entrance, where our gallant barks

  Line all the road, each station’d in her place,

  And where, adjoining close the splendid fane 330

  Of Neptune, stands the forum with huge stones

  From quarries thither drawn, constructed strong,

  In which the rigging of their barks they keep,

  Sail-cloth and cordage, and make smooth their oars;

  (For bow and quiver the Phæacian race

  Heed not, but masts and oars, and ships well-poised,

  With which exulting they divide the flood)

  Then, cautious, I would shun their bitter taunts

  Disgustful, lest they mock me as I pass;

  For of the meaner people some are coarse 340

  In the extreme, and it may chance that one,

  The basest there seeing us shall exclaim —

  What handsome stranger of athletic form

  Attends the Princess? Where had she the chance

  To find him? We shall see them wedded soon.

  Either she hath received some vagrant guest

  From distant lands, (for no land neighbours ours)

  Or by her pray’rs incessant won, some God

  Hath left the heav’ns to be for ever hers.

  ’Tis well if she have found, by her own search, 350

  An husband for herself, since she accounts

  The Nobles of Phæacia, who her hand

  Solicit num’rous, worthy to be scorn’d —

  Thus will they speak, injurious. I should blame

  A virgin guilty of such conduct much,

  Myself, who reckless of her parents’ will,

  Should so familiar with a man consort,

  Ere celebration of her spousal rites.

  But mark me, stranger! following my advice,

  Thou shalt the sooner at my father’s hands 360

  Obtain safe conduct and conveyance home.

  Sacred to Pallas a delightful grove

  Of poplars skirts the road, which we shall reach

  Ere long; within that grove a fountain flows,

  And meads encircle it; my father’s farm

  Is there, and his luxuriant garden plot;

  A shout might reach it from the city-walls.

  There wait, till in the town arrived, we gain

  My father’s palace, and when reason bids

  Suppose us there, then ent’ring thou the town, 370

  Ask where Alcinoüs dwells, my valiant Sire.

  Well known is his abode, so that with ease

  A child might lead thee to it, for in nought

  The other houses of our land the house

  Resemble, in which dwells the Hero, King

  Alcinoüs. Once within the court received

  Pause not, but, with swift pace advancing, seek

  My mother; she beside a column sits

  In the hearth’s blaze, twirling her fleecy threads

  Tinged with sea-purple, bright, magnificent! 380

  With all her maidens orderly behind.

  There also stands my father’s throne, on which

  Seated, he drinks and banquets like a God.

  Pass that; then suppliant clasp my mother’s knees,

  So shalt thou quickly win a glad return

  To thy own home, however far remote.

  Her favour, once, and her kind aid secured,

  Thenceforth thou may’st expect thy friends to see,

  Thy dwelling, and thy native soil again.

  So saying, she with her splendid scourge the mules 390

  Lash’d onward. They (the stream soon left behind)

  With even footsteps graceful smote the ground;

  But so she ruled them, managing with art

  The scourge, as not to leave afar, although

  Following on foot, Ulysses and her train.

  The sun had now declined, when in that grove

  Renown’d, to Pallas sacred, they arrived,

  In which Ulysses sat, and fervent thus

  Sued to the daughter of Jove Ægis-arm’d.

  Daughter invincible of Jove supreme! 400

  Oh, hear me! Hear me now, because when erst

  The mighty Shaker of the shores incensed

  Toss’d me from wave to wave, thou heard’st me not.

  Grant me, among Phæacia’s sons, to find

  Benevolence and pity of my woes!

  He spake, whose pray’r well-pleas’d the Goddess heard,

  But, rev’rencing the brother of her sire,

  Appear’d not to Ulysses yet, whom he

  Pursued with fury to his native shores.

  BOOK VII

  ARGUMENT

  Nausicaa returns from the river, whom Ulysses follows. He halts, by her

  direction, at a small distance from the palace, which at a convenient

  time he enters. He is well received by Alcinoüs and his Queen; and having

  related to them the manner of his being cast on the shore of Scheria, and

  received from Alcinoüs the promise of safe conduct home, retires to rest.

  Such pray’r Ulysses, toil-worn Chief renown’d,

  To Pallas made, meantime the virgin, drawn

  By her stout mules, Phæacia’s city reach’d,

  And, at her father’s house arrived, the car

  Stay’d in the vestibule; her brothers five,

  All godlike youths, assembling quick around,

  Released the mules, and bore the raiment in.

  Meantime, to her own chamber she return’d,

  Where, soon as she arrived, an antient dame

  Eurymedusa, by peculiar charge 10

  Attendant on that service, kindled fire.

  Sea-rovers her had from Epirus brought

  Long since, and to Alcinoüs she had fall’n

  By public gift, for that he ruled, supreme,

  Phæacia, and as oft as he harangued

  The multitude, was rev’renced as a God.

  She waited on the fair Nausicaa, she

  Her fuel kindled, and her food prepared.

  And now Ulysses from his seat arose

  To seek the city, around whom, his guard 20

  Benevolent, Minerva, cast a cloud,

  Lest, haply, some Phæacian should presume

  T’ insult the Chief, and question whence he came.

  But ere he enter’d yet the pleasant town,

  Minerva azure-eyed met him, in form

  A blooming maid, bearing her pitcher forth.

  She stood before him, and the noble Chief

  Ulysses, of the Goddess thus enquired.

  Daughter! wilt thou direct me to the house

  Of brave Alcinoüs, whom this land obeys? 30

  For I have here arrived, after long toil,

  And from a country far remote, a guest

  To all who in Phæacia dwell, unknown.

  To whom the Goddess of the azure-eyes.

  The mansion of thy search, stranger revered!

  Myself will shew thee; for not distant dwells

  Alcinoüs from my father’s own abode:

  But hush! be silent — I will lead the way;

  Mark no man; question no man; for the sight

  Of strangers is unusual here, and cold 40

  The welcome by this people shown to such.

  They, trusting in swif
t ships, by the free grant

  Of Neptune traverse his wide waters, borne

  As if on wings, or with the speed of thought.

  So spake the Goddess, and with nimble pace

  Led on, whose footsteps he, as quick, pursued.

  But still the seaman-throng through whom he pass’d

  Perceiv’d him not; Minerva, Goddess dread,

  That sight forbidding them, whose eyes she dimm’d

  With darkness shed miraculous around 50

  Her fav’rite Chief. Ulysses, wond’ring, mark’d

  Their port, their ships, their forum, the resort

  Of Heroes, and their battlements sublime

  Fenced with sharp stakes around, a glorious show!

  But when the King’s august abode he reach’d,

  Minerva azure-eyed, then, thus began.

  My father! thou behold’st the house to which

  Thou bad’st me lead thee. Thou shalt find our Chiefs

  And high-born Princes banqueting within.

  But enter fearing nought, for boldest men 60

  Speed ever best, come whencesoe’er they may.

  First thou shalt find the Queen, known by her name

  Areta; lineal in descent from those

  Who gave Alcinoüs birth, her royal spouse.

  Neptune begat Nausithoüs, at the first,

  On Peribæa, loveliest of her sex,

  Latest-born daughter of Eurymedon,

  Heroic King of the proud giant race,

  Who, losing all his impious people, shared

  The same dread fate himself. Her Neptune lov’d, 70

  To whom she bore a son, the mighty prince

  Nausithoüs, in his day King of the land.

  Nausithoüs himself two sons begat,

  Rhexenor and Alcinoüs. Phoebus slew

  Rhexenor at his home, a bridegroom yet,

  Who, father of no son, one daughter left,

  Areta, wedded to Alcinoüs now,

  And whom the Sov’reign in such honour holds,

  As woman none enjoys of all on earth

  Existing, subjects of an husband’s pow’r. 80

  Like veneration she from all receives

  Unfeign’d, from her own children, from himself

  Alcinoüs, and from all Phæacia’s race,

  Who, gazing on her as she were divine,

  Shout when she moves in progress through the town.

  For she no wisdom wants, but sits, herself,

  Arbitress of such contests as arise

  Between her fav’rites, and decides aright.

  Her count’nance once and her kind aid secured,

  Thou may’st thenceforth expect thy friends to see, 90

  Thy dwelling, and thy native soil again.

  So Pallas spake, Goddess cærulean-eyed,

  And o’er the untillable and barren Deep

  Departing, Scheria left, land of delight,

  Whence reaching Marathon, and Athens next,

  She pass’d into Erectheus’ fair abode.

  Ulysses, then, toward the palace moved

  Of King Alcinoüs, but immers’d in thought

  Stood, first, and paused, ere with his foot he press’d

  The brazen threshold; for a light he saw 100

  As of the sun or moon illuming clear

  The palace of Phæacia’s mighty King.

  Walls plated bright with brass, on either side

  Stretch’d from the portal to th’ interior house,

  With azure cornice crown’d; the doors were gold

  Which shut the palace fast; silver the posts

  Rear’d on a brazen threshold, and above,

  The lintels, silver, architraved with gold.

  Mastiffs, in gold and silver, lined the approach

  On either side, by art celestial framed 110

  Of Vulcan, guardians of Alcinoüs’ gate

  For ever, unobnoxious to decay.

  Sheer from the threshold to the inner house

  Fixt thrones the walls, through all their length, adorn’d,

  With mantles overspread of subtlest warp

  Transparent, work of many a female hand.

  On these the princes of Phæacia sat,

  Holding perpetual feasts, while golden youths

  On all the sumptuous altars stood, their hands

  With burning torches charged, which, night by night, 120

  Shed radiance over all the festive throng.

  Full fifty female menials serv’d the King

  In household offices; the rapid mills

  These turning, pulverize the mellow’d grain,

  Those, seated orderly, the purple fleece

  Wind off, or ply the loom, restless as leaves

  Of lofty poplars fluttering in the breeze;

  Bright as with oil the new-wrought texture shone.

  Far as Phæacian mariners all else

  Surpass, the swift ship urging through the floods, 130

  So far in tissue-work the women pass

  All others, by Minerva’s self endow’d

  With richest fancy and superior skill.

  Without the court, and to the gates adjoin’d

  A spacious garden lay, fenced all around

  Secure, four acres measuring complete.

  There grew luxuriant many a lofty tree,

  Pomegranate, pear, the apple blushing bright,

  The honied fig, and unctuous olive smooth.

  Those fruits, nor winter’s cold nor summer’s heat 140

  Fear ever, fail not, wither not, but hang

  Perennial, whose unceasing zephyr breathes

  Gently on all, enlarging these, and those

  Maturing genial; in an endless course

  Pears after pears to full dimensions swell,

  Figs follow figs, grapes clust’ring grow again

  Where clusters grew, and (ev’ry apple stript)

  The boughs soon tempt the gath’rer as before.

  There too, well-rooted, and of fruit profuse,

  His vineyard grows; part, wide-extended, basks, 150

  In the sun’s beams; the arid level glows;

  In part they gather, and in part they tread

  The wine-press, while, before the eye, the grapes

  Here put their blossom forth, there, gather fast

  Their blackness. On the garden’s verge extreme

  Flow’rs of all hues smile all the year, arranged

  With neatest art judicious, and amid

  The lovely scene two fountains welling forth,

  One visits, into ev’ry part diffus’d,

  The garden-ground, the other soft beneath 160

  The threshold steals into the palace-court,

  Whence ev’ry citizen his vase supplies.

  Such were the ample blessings on the house

  Of King Alcinoüs by the Gods bestow’d.

  Ulysses wond’ring stood, and when, at length,

  Silent he had the whole fair scene admired,

  With rapid step enter’d the royal gate.

  The Chiefs he found and Senators within

  Libation pouring to the vigilant spy

  Mercurius, whom with wine they worshipp’d last 170

  Of all the Gods, and at the hour of rest.

  Ulysses, toil-worn Hero, through the house

  Pass’d undelaying, by Minerva thick

  With darkness circumfus’d, till he arrived

  Where King Alcinoüs and Areta sat.

  Around Areta’s knees his arms he cast,

  And, in that moment, broken clear away

  The cloud all went, shed on him from above.

  Dumb sat the guests, seeing the unknown Chief,

  And wond’ring gazed. He thus his suit preferr’d. 180

  Areta, daughter of the Godlike Prince

  Rhexenor! suppliant at thy knees I fall,

  Thy royal spouse imploring, and thyself,

  (After ten thousand toils) and these your guests, />
  To whom heav’n grant felicity, and to leave

  Their treasures to their babes, with all the rights

  And honours, by the people’s suffrage, theirs!

  But oh vouchsafe me, who have wanted long

  And ardent wish’d my home, without delay

  Safe conduct to my native shores again! 190

  Such suit he made, and in the ashes sat

  At the hearth-side; they mute long time remain’d,

  Till, at the last, the antient Hero spake

  Echeneus, eldest of Phæacia’s sons,

  With eloquence beyond the rest endow’d,

  Rich in traditionary lore, and wise

  In all, who thus, benevolent, began.

  Not honourable to thyself, O King!

  Is such a sight, a stranger on the ground

  At the hearth-side seated, and in the dust. 200

  Meantime, thy guests, expecting thy command,

  Move not; thou therefore raising by his hand

  The stranger, lead him to a throne, and bid

  The heralds mingle wine, that we may pour

  To thunder-bearing Jove, the suppliant’s friend.

  Then let the cat’ress for thy guest produce

  Supply, a supper from the last regale.

  Soon as those words Alcinoüs heard, the King,

  Upraising by his hand the prudent Chief

  Ulysses from the hearth, he made him sit, 210

  On a bright throne, displacing for his sake

  Laodamas his son, the virtuous youth

  Who sat beside him, and whom most he lov’d.

  And now, a maiden charg’d with golden ew’r

  And with an argent laver, pouring, first,

  Pure water on his hands, supply’d him, next,

  With a resplendent table, which the chaste

  Directress of the stores furnish’d with bread

  And dainties, remnants of the last regale.

  Then ate the Hero toil-inured, and drank, 220

  And to his herald thus Alcinoüs spake.

  Pontonoüs! mingling wine, bear it around

  To ev’ry guest in turn, that we may pour

  To thunder-bearer Jove, the stranger’s friend,

  And guardian of the suppliant’s sacred rights.

  He said; Pontonoüs, as he bade, the wine

  Mingled delicious, and the cups dispensed

  With distribution regular to all.

  When each had made libation, and had drunk

  Sufficient, then, Alcinoüs thus began. 230

  Phæacian Chiefs and Senators, I speak

  The dictates of my mind, therefore attend!

  Ye all have feasted — To your homes and sleep.

  We will assemble at the dawn of day

  More senior Chiefs, that we may entertain

  The stranger here, and to the Gods perform