HOMER.

Homer, thy song men liken to the sea,

With all the notes of music in its tone,

With tides that wash the dim dominion

Of Hades, and light waves that laugh in glee

Around the isles enchanted; nay, to me

Thy verse seems as the River of source unknown

That glasses Egypt's temples overthrown

In his sky-nurtured stream, eternally.

No wiser we than men of heretofore

To find thy sacred fountains guarded fast;

Enough, thy flood makes green our human shore,

As Nilus Egypt, rolling down his vast

His fertile flood, that murmurs evermore

Of gods dethroned, and empires in the past.