Here now arriving, to his rustic band

And martial son, Ulysses gave command:

“Enter the house, and of the bristly swine

Select the largest to the powers divine.

Alone, and unattended, let me try

If yet I share the old man’s memory:

If those dim eyes can yet Ulysses know

(Their light and dearest object long ago),

Now changed with time, with absence and with woe.”

Then to his train he gives his spear and shield;

The house they enter; and he seeks the field,

Through rows of shade, with various fruitage crown’d,

And labour’d scenes of richest verdure round.

Nor aged Dolius; nor his sons, were there,

Nor servants, absent on another care;

To search the woods for sets of flowery thorn,

Their orchard bounds to strengthen and adorn.


But all alone the hoary king he found;

His habit course, but warmly wrapp’d around;

His head, that bow’d with many a pensive care,

Fenced with a double cap of goatskin hair:

His buskins old, in former service torn,

But swell repair’d; and gloves against the thorn.

In this array the kingly gardener stood,

And clear’d a plant, encumber’d with its wood.


Beneath a neighbouring tree, the chief divine

Gazed o’er his sire, retracing every line,

The ruins of himself, now worn away

With age, yet still majestic in decay!

Sudden his eyes released their watery store;

The much-enduring man could bear no more.

Doubtful he stood, if instant to embrace

His aged limbs, to kiss his reverend face,

With eager transport to disclose the whole,

And pour at once the torrent of his soul.—

Not so: his judgment takes the winding way

Of question distant, and of soft essay;

More gentle methods on weak age employs:

And moves the sorrows to enhance the joys.

Then, to his sire with beating heart he moves,

And with a tender pleasantry reproves;

Who digging round the plant still hangs his bead,

Nor aught remits the work, while thus he said:


“Great is thy skill, O father! great thy toil,