Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/397
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HOMER's ODYSSES.
361
And bear unmov'd the wrongs of base mankind,
The last and hardest conquest of the mind.
Goddess of wisdom! (Ithacus replies)
He who discerns thee must be truly wise,
So seldom view'd, and ever in disguise.
When the bold Argives led their warring pow'rs
Against proud Ilion's well-defended tow'rs,
Ulysses was thy care, celestial maid,
Grac'd with thy sight, and favour'd with thy aid:
But when the Trojan piles in ashes lay,
And, bound for Greece, we plow'd the watry way;
Our fleet dispers'd, and driv'n from coast to coast;
Thy sacred presence from that hour I lost;
Till I beheld thy radiant form once more,
And heard thy counsels on Phæacia's shore.
But by th' almighty author of thy race,
Tell me, oh tell, is this my native place?
For much I fear, long tracts of land and sea
Divide this coast from distant Ithaca.
The last and hardest conquest of the mind.
Goddess of wisdom! (Ithacus replies)
He who discerns thee must be truly wise,
So seldom view'd, and ever in disguise.
When the bold Argives led their warring pow'rs
Against proud Ilion's well-defended tow'rs,
Ulysses was thy care, celestial maid,
Grac'd with thy sight, and favour'd with thy aid:
But when the Trojan piles in ashes lay,
And, bound for Greece, we plow'd the watry way;
Our fleet dispers'd, and driv'n from coast to coast;
Thy sacred presence from that hour I lost;
Till I beheld thy radiant form once more,
And heard thy counsels on Phæacia's shore.
But by th' almighty author of thy race,
Tell me, oh tell, is this my native place?
For much I fear, long tracts of land and sea
Divide this coast from distant Ithaca.
The