If I could veer out straight: Or would, I say,

That Zeus would send us war,—I care not whence,—

To-day;—then set a helmet on my brows,

And give me in either hand a spear and shield;

Thou shouldst not taunt me with my belly then.

Now art thou merely insolent and rough,

Because thy fellows are so few and feeble:

And if Ulysses came and faced thee here,

Those doors, wide as they are, would seem too small

And narrow for thee, in thy haste to fly.