Part 6 (1/2)
The shi+p with a fair wind ran up a lane of light into the setting sun, and when at length the moon had risen and silvered all the sea, Ulysses called the men round him
”Co aright, we shall come to the island where the Sirens dwell Now the Lady Circe warned ers who chareia and Leucosiauntil he dies And the island is covered with the bones of dead men To listen is to die But I wish to hear the voices and to escape the enchantment, and so obey my commands When we near the island do you all close your ears ax so that no sound can reach your brains
And take a stout rope and bind me to the mast so that I can in no wise loose o to the Sirens, if theirenchants me, take no heed, but row steadily onwards until the island is far astern Then only rey line upon the horizon showed itself on the starboard bow At the sight, with sohter, for it was difficult to believe in the perils of sweet music!--even for an to press yelloax from the honeyco the of the sail or the voice of the sea, nor could tell the hbour's voice, they went up to Ulysses, and with ht-hearted jests bound hith ell known to the man could have escaped from such bonds
As sailors will, they treated the whole thing as a huge jest,a mock mutiny of it as they bound the captain Ulysses could not help s at their mirth
After such wise precaution he had no fear, and in his heart of hearts he did not believe that the song of the Sirens would affect hih he followed the advice of Circe and made himself a prisoner
But a fierce curiosity possessed him He cursed the slowness of the wind, for, as they bound him, the island was still a low line without colour on the water, and called out to thethat they could not hear hirey island becareen, low, pleasant land, a place of meadows
The as behind them, and until they came quite close under the lee of the island Ulysses could hear no voices but those of the wind and waves Then faintly at first, but rapidly becoic voices which were to ring in his ears in all his after life
No words of his at any time could express the loveliness of those voices, of the unutterable sweetness of it, nothing
The strains floated over the still sea like harps of heaven
All that man had known or desired in life, all the emotions which had stirred the huic voices The world had nothing ive; here, here at last, was the absolute fulfilly sweet, as the unconscious sailors bent to the oars in earnest, and the sweat ran down their bare brown backs
”Whither ahither ahither away? Fly no reen field, and the happy blossoht to the billow the fountain calls: Down shower the ga over the lea”
The face of Ulysses grean and grey as the shi+p passed a projecting point of rock On the s In face and forirls
Naked to the waist, they wore long flowing draperies below, and as they sung the rosy bosoms rose and fell with the
”Mariner, mariner, furl your sails, For here are blissful downs and dales, And le dances in bight and bay, And the rainbow forms and flies on the land Over the islands free; And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand; Hither, come hither and see”
And still the shi+p went on, butthe arms of the rowers
Then the shrill loveliness fired the hero's blood, and he knew that he ers on the strand Earth held nothing better than this--to lie for ever with that music in his ears
”Whither away? listen and stay: mariner, mariner, fly nohave been taken from Lord Tennyson's beautiful poe cadenced notes as by cords, Ulysses gathered up his th and strove with his bonds
But the sailors had done their work too well, and the rope only cut deeply into the flesh
The white arrew more full of unearthly beauty than before--and the shi+p was slowly passing by