Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Greece: Ithaca

Ulysses on His Return

By Uncertain

Translated by J. H. Merivale

HAIL, Ithaca, my loved paternal soil!

How, after years of travel, war, and toil,

How, after countless perils of the sea,

My heart, returning, fondly clings to thee!

Where I shall once more bless my father’s age,

And smooth the last steps of his pilgrimage;

Again embrace my wife, again enjoy

The sweet endearments of mine only boy.

Now, from my soul, I feel how strong the chain

That binds the passions to our native plain.