AND Nestor, the Gerenian knight, replied: 'O friend, to memory you recall the tide Of miseries that encompassed in that land The Achaean host in all their strength and pride: 'The woes we suffered on the misty sea Cruising for plunder, our long ships and we, Whereso Achilles led us, and the strife That round King Priam's city mightily 'We waged in battle: there our bravest shed Their life-blood, there lies valiant Aias dead, There fell Achilles, there Patroclus fell, Who with Gods' wisdom all our counsels led. 'And there among them lies mine own dear son, A warrior brave and fleet of foot to run, Antilochus, the fighter without fault; And other ills we suffered many an one; 'What man of mortals all of them might tell? Not if five years or six you here should dwell Might you by asking all the sorrows learn, That there the bright Achaean host befell: 'But sooner would you go in woeful mood Back to your home. For nine years' space we stood Devising many sleights against the foe, That hardly Cronus' son at last made good. 'And in those days to bright Odysseus none Might be compared in counsel, for he won Far the first place by manifold device; Your father, if indeed you are his son. 'While I behold you, wonder is on me. For such you are in speechcraft as was he; Nor would one say that of well-ordered words So young a man might have such mastery.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SWEET MEETING OF DESIRES by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE IN NOVEMBER by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH I HAVE PRAYED by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE QUEEN IN FRANCE; AN ANCIENT SCOTTISH BALLAD by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN TO MR. BARBAULD, WITH A MAP OF THE LAND OF MATRIMONY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |