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SECOND STAVE

MENELAUS' DREAM: HELEN ON THE WALL

So he who wore his honour like a wreath

About his brows went the dark way of death;

Which being done, that deed of ruth and doom

Gave breath to Troy; but on the Achaians gloom

Settled like pall of cloud upon a land

That swoons beneath it. Desperate they scanned

Each other, saying: "Now we are left by God,"

And in the huts behind the wall abode,

Heeding not Diomede, Idomeneus,

Nor keen Odysseus, nor that friend of Zeus

Mykenai's king, nor that robbed Menelaus,

Nor bowman Teukros, Nestor wise, nor Aias—

Huge Aias, cursed in death! Peleides bare

Himself with pride, but he went raving there.

For in the high assembly Thetis made

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In honour of her son, to waft his shade

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