Thus would he moralise in those bare lands

With hopeless brows and tossing up of hands—

"To sow in sweat and see another reap!"

Then, pitying himself, he'd fall to weep

[14]

His desolation, scorned by Gods, by men

Slighted; but in a flash he'd rage again

And shake his naked sword at unseen foes,

And dare them bring Odysseus to his blows:

Or let the man but flaunt himself in arms...!

So threatening God knows what of savage harms,

On him the oxen patient in the marsh,

Knee-deep in rushes, gazed to hear his harsh

Outcry; and them his madness taught for Greeks,

So on their dumb immensity he wreaks

His vengeance, driving in the press with shout

Of "Aias! Aias!" hurtling, carving out

A way with mighty swordstroke, cut and thrust,

And makes a shambles in his witless lust;

And in the midst, bloodshot, with blank wild eyes

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