The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-03-31
q he Grur Nurtherner.
PAW PAW, MICHIGAN.
A Specimen of Homer in Blank Verse,
ILLIAD, xxi: 437-5l5.

lLLlAD, XII; 45i-al0.
She, weeping, spake.-but llectors wife as yet
Knew not the truth. No messenger had come
To explain her husbands stay outside the wall.
But i'm IN halls recess she wOve web
With the cloths texture brilliant flowers
Her fair haired maids throughout the house she
Place by the fire cauldron huge to battle
Hcctors tired limbs,-when from the fight he
Foolish who knew not then that far from bath.
Pallas had slain him by Achilles hands
But when she heard the wailing from the tower
Her limbs all shOOk,-she let her shuttle fall
And thus addressed her fair-haired maids again
Come hither, follow, two of you with me;
/ fain would see what deeds have here been
| heard my others words. and then my heart
Leaps to my mouth,-my knees with fear grow
numb;
Some evil su re DER Priam's sons impends
Would that my ear might miss her speech, foi
now
I greatly fear that Peleus son pursucs
Brave Hector from the city towards the plain
And makes an end of all that proves sad
BY which he dwelt not with the common herd.
But far out-ran thcm-likc in might to n0ne."
Thus saying, through the hall she rushed in
With throbbing hearth landmarks with her
went,
And when she reached the tower and throng OF
With timorous glance she stood upon the wall
And saw Ter Hector dragged before the town
by reckless stcedS swift To the Achaian ships.
Then gloomy night enveloped both her eyes,
Backward she fell and breathcd out all her soul ;
Far from her head she cast the shining ties,
The wreath. the head-drcs with the woven net,
And vail which golden AphrOdite gave
The date when crested Hector welded her.
Eetion's child and countless gifts bestowed.
A train Of sisters stand around 10 tend
Andromache brought nigh to death by fear.
But when her breath returned and sense came
back,
With bursting sobs the matrons she addressed:
All me. o Hector! So one fate we had.
We two-thOu here in Priam's house in Troy
And in Thebes, meath Places rich in woods
Within EetiOns walls who nurtured me,
Inflated daughter of a wretched sire.
Would that he never had begotten me!
But now thou ,goest underneath the earth
To lladeS realms and me bcrctt dOSt leave
To hateful sorrow in thy fathers house.
AstyanaX rs yet is but babe.
Whom thou and of evil fate brought forth.
10 profit, Hector. wilt thou be TO him,
Nor he 10 thee; for should he now escape
This cruel Achaian war, still toll and woes
Hereafter shall be his, and other men
Shall rob him of his fields. The day that makes
The boy an orphan steals his friends away.
His head .hangs down; his cheeks are wet with
grief;
His fathers comrades he in need accosts
Plucking the cloak of one,-the others coat,
And one in pity offers him a cup
Which ,wetS his lips but never Stake: his thirst;
Some happier man shall thrust him from the
Smittcn with blows, reyiled with cutting words {;
Begone Not cen thy father feasts with us
Then 10 his mother, full of tears, returns
AstyanaX, who once on iector's knees
Ate marrow only and the fat Of sheep;
And when sleep seized him and he ceased from
play
Slept sound on couches in his nurses arms.
On sottest beds, filled in his heart with JOY
But now, bcreft of thee he suffers woes
AstyanaX, so named, since thou alone
Ddst Prams city's gates and walls defend.
Far from thy parents, by the beaked ships,
Thee crawling worms shall eat when dogs
Have had their fill Naked thou art, although
Robes fine and graceful, in thy palace lie,
Which wrought by womanS hands, | will con
sumo
With blazing fre,-no profit now to thee,
Since thou shalt never lie on thcm,--but they
Shall honor thee before the Trojan folk -
She weeping spake--thc matrons with heI
mOurncd. j. NJ. NJ, JR.