Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/426

384 With the pleasures of companions;

But, with javelins of steel

And the sword contending,

To slay wild beasts;

Affording surely much

And tranquil peace to her father's herds;

Spending little sleep

Upon her eyelids,

As her sweet bedfellow, creeping on at dawn.

Fortunate and celebrated

By the wise is that man

Who, conquering by his hands or virtue

Of his feet, takes the highest prizes

Through daring and strength,

And living still sees his youthful son

Deservedly obtaining Pythian crowns.

The brazen heaven is not yet accessible to him.

But whatever glory we

Of mortal race may reach,

He goes beyond, even to the boundaries

Of navigation. But neither in ships, nor going on foot,

Couldst thou find the wonderful way to the contests of the Hyperboreans.

If, being beautiful,

And doing things like to his form,