AN INVITATION. Proud ships upon its bosom ride, It gathers strength and majesty, Oh, better far to feel the flow Better?-dear Peace, thou art the best! 65 AN INVITATION. LADIES in silks and laces, Know you aught of the places, South from your harbour-islands E Berries in field and garden, Know you that, night and morning, Her sides are white and sparkling; Lightly the waves she measures Come with me, ladies, cluster Here on the western pier; Look at her jewels' lustre Changed with the changing year! First of the months to woo her, June his strawberries flings Over her sweet garniture, Bringing her exquisite things. Rifling his richest casket ; Handing her, everywhere, Garnets in crate and basket; Knowing she soon will wear * Nausicaa was the daughter of Alcinous, King of Phoecia in Greece. Ulysses is represented as having been cast on the shore of that island in the LITTLE AILIE'S PET. Driven the kine to pastures new, Would come in train, like painter's dream : Softly wending with their burdens Near her car-their washing done-- Little Ailie dreams and wonders, Could "keep her place" among the workers, She believes that what was favoured So she dons a milkmaid's bonnet, In everything the proper share. 69 course of his long wanderings after the siege of Troy, as these are described by the great Greek poet, Homer, in his poem called The Odyssey. Nausicaa was actually engaged in washing linen at the stream with her maidens, when Ulysses discovered himself to them. Nausicaa did not fly from the stranger like her maidens, but stood and listened to what he had to say, then, perceiving that he was a hero, had him clothed and bathed, and conducted him home where she introduced him to her father; and their entertainment of Ulysses, his conversations with Alcinous, and recital of his adventures, form the theme of succeeding books in Homer's famous poem. |