beat her ivory breast with silent woe, Till Thetis' sorrows thus began to flow: "Hear me, and judge, ye sisters of the main! How just a cause has Thetis to complain! How wretched, were I mortal, were my fate! How more than wretched in the immortal state! Sprung from my bed a godlike hero came, The bravest far that ever bore the name; Like some fair olive, by my careful hand He grew, he flourish'd and adorn'd the land To Troy I sent him: but the fates ordain He never, never must return again. So short a space the light of heaven to view, So short, alas! and fill'd with anguish too! Hear how his sorrows echo through the shore! I cannot ease them, but I must deplore; I go at least to bear a tender part, And mourn my loved-one with a mother's heart." She said, and left the caverns of the main, All bathed in tears; the melancholy train Attend her way. Wide-opening part the tides, While the long pomp the silver wave divides. Approaching now, they touch'd the Trojan land; Then, two by two, ascended up the strand. The immortal mother, standing close beside Her mournful offspring, to his sighs replied; Along the coast their mingled clamours ran, And thus the silver-footed dame began: "Why mourns my son? thy late preferr'd request The god has granted, and the Greeks distress'd: Why mourns my son? thy anguish let me share, Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care." He, deeply groaning--"To this cureless grief, Not even the Thunderer's favour brings relief. Patroclus--Ah!--say, goddess, can I boast A pleasure now? revenge itself is lost; Patroclus, loved of all my martial train, Beyond mankind, beyond myself is slain! Lost are those arms the gods themselves bestow'd On Peleus; Hector bears the glorious load. Cursed be that day, when all the powers above Thy charms submitted to a mortal love: O hadst thou still, a sister of the main, Pursued the pleasures of the watery reign: And happ