Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-16
For the RECORD UNION
ODYssEUS IN THE PALACE OF Al
CINOUs.

Then are they glad, because they are at rest.
The feast was over, in the palace fair,
| OF good Alcinous. The stranger guest,
The object of most hospitable care.
Dismissed, with goodnight wishes. to his rest
| Lighr-footed maidens soon his couch prepare
With rare stutfs wrought in crimson draperies
| And blankets white. to shield him from the all
That bloweth chilly from the heaving main;
so might he warmly rest, and SO forget his pain
Then, turning to the sad-eyed guest. they spake
In accents, made by pity. hall divine:
hest tnee tired stranger. May thy woes for
Thy weary heart. and fai. shapes walk with
thee,
While in the land of dreams thy spirit wanders
So in the morn thou shalt refreshed arise
Gladly he heard their bidding. His deep eyes
Watched their retreating forms adown the hall,
linen bent his reyerent knee, and on the gods
did call.
The vision of past sorrows. Lurid skies,
And tossing pillows, that his bark o er swept
And IN his ears the sailors piercing cries,
The sirens voices float across the MAN,
And he who hearkens TO that music dies
He hears the Lotos-eaters' drear refrain:
give us long rest the weary spirits balm,
There is no peace but sleep. There is no JOY
but calm
The night wore on. The waves Tapped on the
beach,
The air was heavy with the salt seas breath.
sweet murmurs hoated round unheard by each.
Wrapped in sleep that counterfeited death,
The Lafes and Penates of the place.
Visit each couch whereon the sleepers law
They hover near, and revere ntly survey
The good Arete and her kingly spouse
From thence they take their way through all
the silent house.
Then came they where the wise Odysseus slept,
The mo0nbeams flooding all the stately place.
Now circliug, hand in hand, they softly slept.
Ana looked with awe upon the warriors face.
Rest thee they sang, in pipings thin and
sweet,
Like him of gauzy wings in summer air.
~ est thy tired brain, and ease thy weary feet,
Son of Laertes. whom the gods have thrown
Upon these alien shores. stranger sad and
lone"
"Giye him; said one, "a dream of love and
home"
tear brake through the heavy seard lid,
And sliding down The golden wavy beard,
Flashed on the marble floor. mo more no
more
They cried. "See! We have made the brayest
Weave we our choicest spells about his sleep,
The dreary past uuvisited 10 keep.
Give him oblivion of ali his cares,
OF all that he hath borne, and all he yet may
bear"
Then shook such odors forth from each light
wing,
As sailors breathe in spicy gales at sea,
Or ylolets in their early blosseming,
10 tired wayfarers on dusty lea.
The fleece " hite blankets folded DER his breast,
They rise and fall, in rhythmic breathings deep
sleep long, sleep well, our masters honored
guestp'
The thin, sweet voices sang in sofest strain.
This night shall naught thee vex in earth, or
air or main.
We charm the shrilling cricket from thy sleep,
The owls sad note, the bittern's distant boom,
And at the moon the watch dogs baying deep,
AND chant OF frogs within the dark lagoon,
Inc DlrQllnpg within the crowded
And on the beach the pillows ceaseless tune
silence profound shall sanctify thy rest,
Nothing shall yex the guest of Alcinous
And SO the hero slept. within that stately house.