ropes
To either bow
Firm harness'd by the mane; a chief,
With shout and shaken spear,
Stands at the prow, and guides them; but astern 190
The cowering merchants, in long robes,
Sit pale beside their wealth
Of silk-bales and of balsam-drops,
Of gold and ivory,
Of turquoise-earth and amethyst, 195
Jasper and chalcedony,
And milk-barr'd onyx-stones. deg. deg.197
The loaded boat swings groaning
In the yellow eddies;
The Gods behold them. 200
They see the Heroes
Sitting in the dark ship
On the foamless, long-heaving
Violet sea,
At sunset nearing 205
The Happy Islands. deg. deg.206

These things, Ulysses,
The wise bards also
Behold and sing.
But oh, what labour! 210
O prince, what pain!

They too can see
Tiresias;--but the Gods,
Who give them vision,
Added this law: 215
That they should bear too
His groping blindness,
His dark foreboding,
His scorn'd white hairs;
Bear Hera's anger deg. deg.220
Through a life lengthen'd
To seven ages.

They see the Centaurs
On Pelion;--then they feel,
They too, the maddening wine 225
Swell their large veins to bursting; in wild pain
They feel the biting spears
Of the grim Lapithae, deg. and Theseus, deg. drive, deg.228
Drive crashing through their bones deg.; they feel deg.229
High on a jutting rock in the red stream 230
Alcmena's dreadful son deg. deg.231
Ply his bow;--such a price
The Gods exact for song:
To become what we sing.

They see the Indian 235
On his mountain lake; but squalls
Make their skiff reel, and worms
In the unkind spring have gnawn
Their melon-harvest to the heart.--They see
The Scythian; but long frosts 240
Parch them in winter-time on the bare stepp,
Till they too fade like grass; they crawl
Like shadows forth in spring.

They see the merchants
On the Oxus stream deg.;--but care