Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ILIAD: BOOK 11. THE RESISTANCE OF AJAX, by HOMER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ILIAD: BOOK 11. THE RESISTANCE OF AJAX, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: But the eternal father throned on high / with fear fill'd ajax
Last Line: Their disappointed fury in the ground.
Variant Title(s): Ajax In The Fight
Subject(s): Achilles; Mythology - Classical; Trojan War


BUT the eternal father throned on high
With fear fill'd Ajax; panic-fixt he stood,
His seven-fold shield behind his shoulder cast,
And, hemm'd by numbers, with an eye askant,
Watchful retreated. As a beast of prey
Retiring, turns and looks, so he his face
Turn'd oft, retiring slow, and step by step.
As when the watch-dogs and assembled swains
Have driv'n a tawny lion from the stalls,
Then, interdicting him his wished repast,
Watch all the night, he, famish'd, yet again
Comes furious on, but speeds not, kept aloof
By frequent spears from daring hands, but more
By flash of torches, which, though fierce, he dreads,
Till, at the dawn, sullen he stalks away;
So from before the Trojans Ajax stalk'd
Sullen, and with reluctance slow retir'd,
His brave heart trembling for the fleet of Greece.
As when (the boys o'erpower'd) a sluggish ass,
Whose tough sides erst have shiver'd many a staff,
Enters the harvest, and the spiry ears
Crops persevering; with their rods the boys
Still ply him hard, but all their puny might
Scarce drives him forth when he hath browzed his fill,
So, there, the Trojans and their foreign aids
With glitt'ring lances keen, huge Ajax urged
His broad shield's centre smiting. He, by turns,
With desp'rate force the Trojan phalanx dense
Facing, repulsed them, and by turns retired,
But still forbad all inroad on the fleet.
Trojans and Greeks between, alone, he stood
A bluwark. Spears from daring hands dismiss'd
Some, in his shield's thick folds unwilling stay'd,
While others, in the midway falling, spent
Their disappointed fury in the ground.





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