Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/375

Book XVI. Eumæus wonder-struck, and from his hand Let fall the cups with which he was employ'd Mingling rich wine; to his young Lord he ran, His forehead kiss'd, kiss'd his bright-beaming eyes And both his hands, weeping profuse the while, As when a father folds in his embrace Arrived from foreign lands in the tenth year His darling son, the offspring of his age, His only one, for whom he long hath mourn'd, So kiss'd the noble peasant o'er and o'er Godlike Telemachus, as from death escaped, And in wing'd accents plaintive thus began. Light of my eyes, thou com'st; it is thyself, Sweetest Telemachus! I had no hope To see thee more, once told that o'er the Deep Thou hadst departed for the Pylian coast. Enter, my precious son; that I may sooth My soul with sight of thee from far arrived, For seldom thou thy feeders and thy farm Visitest, in the city custom'd much To make abode, that thou may'st witness there The manners of those hungry suitors proud. To whom Telemachus, discrete, replied. It will be so. There is great need, my friend! But here, for thy sake, have I now arrived, That I may look on thee, and from thy lips Learn if my mother still reside at home, Or have become spouse of some other Chief,