“There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells; The sun ne’er views the uncomfortable seats, When radiant he advances, or retreats: Unhappy race! whom endless night invades, Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades. “The ship we moor on these obscure abodes; Disbark the sheep, an offering to the gods; And, hellward bending, o’er the beach descry The doleful passage to the infernal sky. The victims, vow’d to each Tartarian power, Eurylochus and Perimedes bore. “Here open’d hell, all hell I here implored, And from the scabbard drew the shining sword: And trenching the black earth on every side, A cavern form’d, a cubit long and wide. New wine, with honey-temper’d milk, we bring, Then living waters from the crystal spring: O’er these was strew’d the consecrated flour, And on the surface shone the holy store. “Now the wan shades we hail, the infernal gods, To speed our course, and waft us o’er the floods: So shall a barren heifer from the stall Beneath the knife upon your altars fall; So in our palace, at our safe return, Rich with unnumber’d gifts the pile shall burn; So shall a ram, the largest of the breed, Black as these regions, to Tiresias bleed. “Thus solemn rites and holy vows we paid To all the phantom-nations of the dead; Then died the sheep: a purple torrent flow’d, And all the caverns smoked with streaming blood. When lo! appear’d along the dusky coasts, Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts: Fair, pensive youths, and soft enamour’d maids; And wither’d elders, pale and wrinkled shades; Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain Stalk’d with majestic port, a martial train: These and a thousand more swarm’d o’er the ground, And all the dire assembly shriek’d around. Astonish’d at the sight, aghast I stood, And a cold fear ran shivering through my blood; Straight I command the sacrifice to haste, Straight the flay’d victims to the flames are cast, And mutter’d vows, and mystic song applied To grisly Pluto, and his gloomy bride. “Now swift I waved my falchion o’er the blood; Back started the pale throngs, and trembling stood, Round the black trench the gore untasted flows, Till awful from the shades Tiresias rose. “There wandering through the gloom I first survey’d, New to the realms of death, Elpenor’s shade: His cold remains all naked to the sky On distant shores unwept, unburied lie. Sad at the sight I stand, deep fix’d in woe, And ere I spoke the tears began to flow. “‘O say what angry power Elpenor led To glide in shades, and wander with the dead? How could thy soul, by realms and seas disjoin’d, Outfly the nimble sail, and leave the lagging wind?