_Tel._ Truly ’twixt hope and hopelessness, we stood In blank uncertainty; and if not yet Our wishes wore the colour of our fears, Now was the turn. _Ul._ I come then not too soon? _Tel._ Nay, nor too late. _Ul._ ’Tis well, but time is short; Tarry no longer. Get thee home, and there Ordain a sacrifice, such as befits 840 This day of days: such as may well content The favourable deities, and appease The unfriendly. Guess, son, if thy heart is stirred, How ’tis with me. The ties of home are dear, And what a man is born to, both the place, Where’er it be, that hath received his being Out of oblivion, and given his mind The shapes and hues of earth, the sights of heaven, The place whence he sets forth to meet strange things, Whither returns to find his own, himself; 850 This bides, the harbour of his fancy,—and draws him Spite of all else from world’s end to world’s end. And more, more dear, are those whose place it was, Whose name he is called by, whom he calls his own, Whose love hath borne and nurtured him, whose life He is offshoot of and diligent support. This love thou knowest, and being to-day returned But from short voyage, mayst in little gauge My joy returning after many years. But what thou know’st not—mayst thou come to know!— 860 I’ll tell thee. There be ties dearer than place Or parents; there be bonds that break in pieces The hearts that break them, and whose severance Is more than banishment. Boy, ’tis thy mother That makes this Ithaca the world to me; These tears are hers: and seeing thee, my son, Whose picture I have carried in my heart, And year by year have checked and altered still With vain imagination to thy growth Since last I left thee fondled in her arms, 870 I learn how dear art thou. Now on thy brow I’ll set this kiss. Begone and do my bidding. The goddess calls me: I must take again That shape which late thou saw’st me in. Farewell. Forget not when I am changèd what I am. _Tel._ Thy first commands are dear, sire; I obey. ACT · III _Hall in house of Ulysses: [as described, in note]. EURYMACHUS, AMPHINOMUS, CTESIPPUS, PHEMIUS, and many suitors. Noise and brawling. Remains of feast._ _EURYMACHUS._ PEACE! Will none hear? Silence! O peace, I say. Will ye not hearken? (_Some abatement._) _AMPHINOMUS._ Friends, give ear awhile, And hearken to Eurymachus. _CTESIPPUS._ For one, I am not of his party. _A SUITOR._ Nay, nor I, 880 Let him command his own.