"Go them for home, and troop up with the Wooers, Thy will with theirs joined, power with their rude powers; And after shall the herdsmen guide to town My steps, my person wholly overgrown With all appearance of a poor old swain, Heavy and wretched. If their high disdain Of my vile presence made them my desert Affect with contumelies, let thy loved heart Beat in fixed confines of thy bosom still, And see me suffer, patient of their ill. But when I give the sign, all th' arms that are Aloft thy roof in some near room prepare-- Two swords, two darts, two shields, left for us twain. But let none know Ulysses near again." But when air's rosy birth, the morn, arose, Telemachus did for the turn dispose His early steps; went on with spritely pace, And to the Wooers studied little grace ... And now the king and herdsman from the field Drew nigh the town; when in the yard there lay A dog called Argus, which, before his way Assumed for Ilion, Ulysses bred, Yet stood his pleasure then in little stead, As being too young, but, growing to his grace, Young men made choice of him for every chase, Or of their wild goats, of their hares, or harts; But, his king gone, and he, now past his parts, Lay all abjectly on the stable's store Before the ox-stall, and mules' stable-door, To keep the clothes cast from the peasants' hands While they laid compass on Ulysses' lands, The dog, with ticks (unlook'd to) overgrown. But by this dog no sooner seen but known Was wise Ulysses; who now enter'd there. Up went his dog's laid ears, coming near, Up he himself rose, fawned, and wagged his stern, Couch'd close his ears, and lay so; nor discern Could ever more his dear-loved lord again. Ulysses saw it, nor had power t'abstain From shedding tears; but (far-off seeing his swain) His grief dissembled.... Then they entered in And left poor Argus dead; his lord's first sight Since that time twenty years bereft his sight. Telemachus welcomed the wayworn suppliant; the feasting Wooers, too, sent him portions of meat, save Antinous, who Rapt up a stool, with which he smit The king's right shoulder, 'twixt his neck and it. He stood him like a rock. Antinous' dart Stirred not Ulysses, who in his great heart Deep ills projected. The very Wooers were wroth. Which clamour Penelope hearing, she sent for Eumæus, and bade him summon the stranger to her; but he would not come till evening, by reason of the suitors, from whom he had discourteous treatment.