Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | II. Light: Day: Night | | The Camp at Night | | Homer (fl. 850 B.C.) |
| | From the Greek by George Chapman
From “The Iliad,” Book VIII.
THE WINDS transferred into the friendly sky | |
| Their supper’s savor; to the which they sat delightfully, | |
| And spent all night in open field; fires round about them shined. | |
| As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind, | |
| And stars shine clear, to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the brows | 5 |
| Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows, | |
| And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight, | |
| When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light, | |
| And all the signs in heaven are seen, that glad the shepherd’s heart; | |
| So many fires disclose their beams, made by the Trojan part, | 10 |
| Before the face of Ilion, and her bright turrets showed. | |
| A thousand courts of guard kept fires, and every guard allowed | |
| Fifty stout men, by whom their horse eat oats and hard white corn, | |
| And all did wishfully expect the silver-thronèd morn. | | | | |
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