Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ILIAD: BOOK 4. THE TWO HOSTS, by HOMER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ILIAD: BOOK 4. THE TWO HOSTS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As when the billow gathers fast
Last Line: And men the more lament.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Trojan War


AS when the billow gathers fast
With slow and sullen roar
Beneath the keen north-western blast
Against the sounding shore:
First far at sea it rears its crest,
Then bursts upon the beach,
Or with proud arch and swelling breast,
Where headlands outward reach,
It smites their strength, and bellowing flings
Its silver from afar;
So, stern and thick, the Danaan kings
And soldiers marched to war.
Each leader gave his men the word,
Each warrior deep in silence heard;
So mute they marched, thou could'st not ken
They were a mass of speaking men;
And as they strode, in martial might,
Their flickering arms shot back the light.

But, as at even the folded sheep
Of some rich master stand,
Ten thousand thick their place they keep,
And bide the milkman's hand,
And more and more they bleat, the more
They hear their lamblings cry;
So from the Trojan host, uproar
And din rose loud and high.
They were a many-voiced throng;
Discordant accents there,
That sound from many a differing tongue,
Their differing race declare.
These, Mars had kindled for the fight;
Those, starry-eyed Athene's might,
And savage Terror, and Affright,
And Strife, insatiate of wars,
The sister and the mate of Mars;
Strife that, a pigmy at her birth,
By gathering rumour fed,
Soon plants her feet upon the earth
And in the heaven her head.
With hand impartial sowing now
About the field she went,
That hatred in their hearts might grow
And men the more lament.





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