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Saw you perchance before the Trojan wall
A sister's husband or wife's father fall,
A valiant man? for next one's kin and blood
Is such affinity most close of all:
Or one knit close to you in friendship's bands,
Gracious of heart and mighty of his hands?
Since nowise lesser than a brother born
The comrade is who wisdom understands.

— John William Mackail The Odyssey (1910)

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More quotes by John William Mackail

The soul beyond her knowing seems to sweep
Out of the deep, fire-winged, into the deep.

And the sun left the lovely lake and clomb
Upward across the sky's brass-paven dome,
To light the deathless gods, and mortal men
That have the acres of the corn for home.

The Odyssey (1910)

What dark-haired daughter of a Lucumo
Bore on her slim white finger to the grave
This the first gift her Tyrrhene lover gave,
Those five-and-twenty centuries ago?

Still . . . fair, though scarce less old than Rome.
Now once again at rest from wandering
Across the high Alps and the dreadful sea,
In utmost England let it find a home.

O Muse, instruct me of the man who drew
His changeful course through wanderings not a few
After he sacked the holy town of Troy,
And saw the cities and the counsel knew
Of many men, and many a time at sea
Within his heart he bore calamity,
While his own life he laboured to redeem
And bring his fellows back from jeopardy.

The Odyssey (1910)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John William Mackail (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.