Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/247

Book X. Your freshen'd spirit may revive, and ye Courageous grow again, as when ye left The rugged shores of Ithaca, your home. For now, through recollection, day by day, Of all your pains and toils, ye are become Spiritless, strengthless, and the taste forget Of pleasure, such have been your num'rous woes. She spake, whose invitation kind prevail'd, And won us to her will. There, then, we dwelt The year complete, fed with delicious fare Day after day, and quaffing gen'rous wine. But when (the year fulfill'd) the circling hours Their course resumed, and the successive months With all their tedious days were spent, my friends, Summoning me abroad, thus greeted me. Sir! recollect thy country, if indeed The fates ordain thee to revisit safe That country, and thy own glorious abode. So they; whose admonition I receiv'd Well-pleas'd. Then, all the day, regaled we sat At Circe's board with sav'ry viands rare, And quaffing richest wine; but when, the sun Declining, darkness overshadow'd all, Then, each within the dusky palace took Custom'd repose, and to the Goddess' bed Magnificent ascending, there I urged My earnest suit, which gracious she receiv'd, And in wing'd accents earnest thus I spake.