Here paused the Voice, and now, methought, I spoke, But what I know not; for there passed a shock Throughout my senses, like a lightning-stroke;

I started to my feet;-the tall white Rock Walled the far waste of silent sea, the morn Light-lined the East, on grey-white wings upborne.

THE RETURN OF ULYSSES.

THE identity of Ithaca and Thiáke is satisfactorily demonstrated by Sir W. Gell, and other writers. There still remains, too, in the minds of the islanders, the legendary remembrance of the wandering king and the faithful wife, who weaves and spoils her web for very sorrow and distraction. The localities are quite as recognisable as could be expected :-a Grotto was discovered a few years ago by the shepherds, just above the shore of the deep bay (λιμένος πολυβενθέος), which bears a faithful likeness to the Homeric portrait of the cave of the nymphs. It is beautifully hung with stalactites, which are evidently the "distaffs" of its divine inhabitants, and its floor is strewn with fragments of votive amphora and other relics of ancient worship.

In another part of the island is a Fountain, still called "Melannéron." Now the cattle of Eumæus come to the fount of Arethusa to drink the "black water;" and as this is still the common drinking-place of all the neighbouring cattle, the name has probably come down from the Homeric times.

As to the house of Ulysses, two sites of ancient cities are clearly to be traced, the one on the Eagle-height ("A.Tw), near

the narrowest part, the other to the north of the western coast, still called the city (Στήνπολι or Πόλις); but I should not hesitate to take the former for the more important, if not elder one, and, consequently, the most likely to have been the dwelling of the Chief of the Republic of the Islands. But any such detailed and special identification as that attempted by Gell is fantastical; and some correspondence between the description and the plan of the remains, proves nothing more than a generic similarity between the dwellings of nearly the same age in the same country.

THE Man of wisdom and endurance rare,

A sundry-coloured and strange-featured way,
Our hearts have followed; now the pleasant care
Is near its end,—the oars' sweet-echoed play,
Falls on the cliffs of Ithaca's deep bay ;—
The enemy, on whose impetuous breast

The hero rode undaunted, night and day, (Such was Minerva's power, and Jove's behest) Scorns the inglorious strife and lays his wrath to rest.

And how returns the tempest-tossed? his prows
Gay-garlanded, with grand triumphal song?
Leaps he upon the strand, and proudly vows
Dire vengeance unto all who did him wrong?
Not so; for him, all force and passion strong,
And fretful tumult, for a while are o'er,—

He is borne gently, placidly, along,
And laid upon his own beloved shore,

Even as a wearied child, in quiet sleep once more!

There is no part of that archaic Lay,
That strikes with such resistless power on me,
As this pure artist-touch, this tender ray,
A perfect-simple light of poesy;

Not the nice wiles of chaste Penelope,-
Not the poor pining dog that died of joy,—

Not the grey smoke the wanderer yearned to see, Whose wavings he had traced, a careless boy, Sweet as they are, for me this preference can destroy.

Where the "stone distaffs" of the nymphs of old,
Still make rich tracery in the sacred Cave,―
Where peasants the dark-shadowed Fountain cold,
Hail by the name the Poet found or gave,
Where on the Eagle-height the walls out-brave
All time, and only the full-fruited vine

Trails o'er the home,-it may be o'er the grave,
Of Him for whom these memories combine,-

Rest, care-worn mortal! rest, and let his sleep be thine.

GRECIAN SUNSET.

66

THE modern Greek phrase for the setting of the sun is "Baσiλevel & Hos," "the sun reigns," or "the sun is a king." One interpretation of this expression was given me, viz., that in the vesper anthem beginning with the words, "'O Kúpios Baoλeve," "the Lord reigns," the action was transferred to the sun itself, in the same feeling as the "Ave Maria" is the synonym of the close of an Italian day. Another explanation I have formed into the following lines.

IN perfect Kingliness now reigns the Sun;

At morn, as one who girds himself for speed, A Hero prompt to do a mighty deed,

And not to rest until the deed be done,

He rose at noon he wore the guise of one,
Who feels the purpose that his will decreed
Half-perfect, and goes onward to his meed,

Stronger than were his labour just begun ;
And now his aim attained, his triumph known,
In conscious dignity he mounts his throne
Of golden air, and ere the eve can spread
Her pale-rose veil above his royal head,
No courtier clouds around him, to the bed
Of a victorious rest, he passes all alone.

A GRECIAN THUNDER-STORM.

THE Thunder came not with one awful pulse, When the wide Heaven seems quaking to its heart, But in a current of tumultuous noise,

Crash upon crash,-a multitudinous clang

Of cymbals beating in the low-hung clouds,—
And every shortest interspace filled up
With echoes vivid as their parent sounds.
The lightning came not in one flash of light,
Soon yielding to the darkness, (which ere long
Is routed by another wingèd blaze,)

But with no pause, and swaying to and fro,
As if the common air was turned to flame.
So mused I, from this hot and furious scene
Drawing a timely lesson of calm Truth,
So,—when great nations are awake at heart,
And rise embattled, from an ancient sleep
Sudden aroused by some consummate deed
Of reckless tyranny, or glad to stand
For heir-loom rights, familiar liberties,
Through pain and loss and terror, unto death,—
Should be the expression of their energies,-
Earnest, intense, impassioned as you will,
But with no pause; the fruit is Victory.