All 49 Uses
scarcity
in
The Iliad by Homer - (translated by: Pope)
(Auto-generated)
- It is certain there is not near that number of images and descriptions in any epic poet, though every one has assisted himself with a great quantity out of him; and it is evident of Virgil especially, that he has scarce any comparisons which are not drawn from his master.†
Book Pref.scarce = in short supply OR barely or hardly (by a small margin)
- Chapman has taken the advantage of an immeasurable length of verse, notwithstanding which, there is scarce any paraphrase more loose and rambling than his.†
Book Pref. *
- Now nine long years of mighty Jove are run, Since first the labours of this war begun: Our cordage torn, decay'd our vessels lie, And scarce insure the wretched power to fly.†
Book 2
- Thus from his flaggy wings when Notus sheds A night of vapours round the mountain heads, Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade, To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade; While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey, Lost and confused amidst the thicken'd day: So wrapp'd in gathering dust, the Grecian train, A moving cloud, swept on, and hid the plain.†
Book 3
- To spread the war, I flew from shore to shore; The immortal coursers scarce the labour bore.†
Book 4
- dire sister of the slaughtering power, Small at her birth, but rising every hour, While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound, She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around;(139) The nations bleed, where'er her steps she turns, The groan still deepens, and the combat burns.†
Book 4
- Once from the walls your timorous foes engaged, While fierce in war divine Achilles raged; Now issuing fearless they possess the plain, Now win the shores, and scarce the seas remain.†
Book 5
- and not of Tydeus' kind, Whose little body lodged a mighty mind; Foremost he press'd in glorious toils to share, And scarce refrain'd when I forbade the war.†
Book 5
- Now frantic Diomed, at her command, Against the immortals lifts his raging hand: The heavenly Venus first his fury found, Me next encountering, me he dared to wound; Vanquish'd I fled; even I, the god of fight, From mortal madness scarce was saved by flight.†
Book 5
- My mother lived to wear the victor's bands, The queen of Hippoplacia's sylvan lands: Redeem'd too late, she scarce beheld again Her pleasing empire and her native plain, When ah!†
Book 6
- As when a general darkness veils the main, (Soft Zephyr curling the wide wat'ry plain,) The waves scarce heave, the face of ocean sleeps, And a still horror saddens all the deeps; Thus in thick orders settling wide around, At length composed they sit, and shade the ground.†
Book 7
- These words scarce spoke, with generous ardour press'd, His manly limbs in azure arms he dress'd.†
Book 7
- Scarce could the friend his slaughter'd friend explore, With dust dishonour'd, and deformed with gore.†
Book 7
- Scarce had his falchion cut the reins, and freed The encumber'd chariot from the dying steed, When dreadful Hector, thundering through the war, Pour'd to the tumult on his whirling car.†
Book 8
- Would all the deities of Greece combine, In vain the gloomy Thunderer might repine: Sole should he sit, with scarce a god to friend, And see his Trojans to the shades descend: Such be the scene from his Idaean bower; Ungrateful prospect to the sullen power!†
Book 8
- There was a time ('twas when for Greece I fought) When Hector's prowess no such wonders wrought; He kept the verge of Troy, nor dared to wait Achilles' fury at the Scaean gate; He tried it once, and scarce was saved by fate.†
Book 9
- Scarce can my knees these trembling limbs sustain, And scarce my heart support its load of pain.†
Book 10
- Scarce can my knees these trembling limbs sustain, And scarce my heart support its load of pain.†
Book 10
- Scarce had he pass'd the steeds and Trojan throng, (Still bending forward as he coursed along,) When, on the hollow way, the approaching tread Ulysses mark'd, and thus to Diomed; "O friend!†
Book 10
- Now Dolon, listening, heard them as they pass'd; Hector (he thought) had sent, and check'd his haste, Till scarce at distance of a javelin's throw, No voice succeeding, he perceived the foe.†
Book 10
- Bold was thy aim, and glorious was the prize, (Ulysses, with a scornful smile, replies,) Far other rulers those proud steeds demand, And scorn the guidance of a vulgar hand; Even great Achilles scarce their rage can tame, Achilles sprung from an immortal dame.†
Book 10
- Scarce had he spoke, when, lo!†
Book 10
- Scarce did the down his rosy cheeks invest, And early honour warm his generous breast, When the kind sire consign'd his daughter's charms (Theano's sister) to his youthful arms.†
Book 11
- As the slow beast, with heavy strength endued, In some wide field by troops of boys pursued, Though round his sides a wooden tempest rain, Crops the tall harvest, and lays waste the plain; Thick on his hide the hollow blows resound, The patient animal maintains his ground, Scarce from the field with all their efforts chased, And stirs but slowly when he stirs at last: On Ajax thus a weight of Trojans hung, The strokes redoubled on his buckler rung; Confiding now in bulky strength he stands, Now turns, and backward bears the yielding bands; Now stiff recedes, yet hardly seems to fly, And threats his followers with retorted eye.†
Book 11
- And where low walls confine the beating tides, Whose humble barrier scarce the foe divides; Where late in fight both foot and horse engaged, And all the thunder of the battle raged,) There join'd, the whole Boeotian strength remains, The proud Iaonians with their sweeping trains, Locrians and Phthians, and th' Epaean force; But join'd, repel not Hector's fiery course.†
Book 13
- What troops, out-number'd, scarce the war maintain!†
Book 13
- Spent and o'erpower'd, he barely breathes at most; Yet scarce an army stirs him from his post; Dangers on dangers all around him glow, And toil to toil, and woe succeeds to woe.†
Book 16
- His spear Aeneas at the victor threw, Who stooping forward from the death withdrew; The lance hiss'd harmless o'er his covering shield, And trembling struck, and rooted in the field; There yet scarce spent, it quivers on the plain, Sent by the great Aeneas' arm in vain.†
Book 16
- The first attack the Grecians scarce sustain, Repulsed, they yield; the Trojans seize the slain.†
Book 17
- The glorious steeds our ready arms invite, Scarce their weak drivers guide them through the fight.†
Book 17
- Deserted of the god, yet let us try What human strength and prudence can supply; If yet this honour'd corse, in triumph borne, May glad the fleets that hope not our return, Who tremble yet, scarce rescued from their fates, And still hear Hector thundering at their gates.†
Book 17
- The joyful goddess, from Olympus' height, Swift to Achaian Argos bent her flight: Scarce seven moons gone, lay Sthenelus's wife; She push'd her lingering infant into life: Her charms Alcmena's coming labours stay, And stop the babe, just issuing to the day.†
Book 19
- These lightly skimming, when they swept the plain, Nor plied the grass, nor bent the tender grain; And when along the level seas they flew,(265) Scarce on the surface curl'd the briny dew.†
Book 20
- Great as he is, our arms he scarce will try, Content for once, with all his gods, to fly.†
Book 20
- The squire, who saw expiring on the ground His prostrate master, rein'd the steeds around; His back, scarce turn'd, the Pelian javelin gored, And stretch'd the servant o'er his dying lord.†
Book 20
- Scarce respited from woes I yet appear, And scarce twelve morning suns have seen me here; Lo!†
Book 21
- Scarce respited from woes I yet appear, And scarce twelve morning suns have seen me here; Lo!†
Book 21
- Now bursting on his head with thundering sound, The falling deluge whelms the hero round: His loaded shield bends to the rushing tide; His feet, upborne, scarce the strong flood divide, Sliddering, and staggering.†
Book 21
- Swift from the field the baffled huntress flies, And scarce restrains the torrent in her eyes: So, when the falcon wings her way above, To the cleft cavern speeds the gentle dove; (Not fated yet to die;) there safe retreats, Yet still her heart against the marble beats.†
Book 21
- So from some deep-grown wood a panther starts, Roused from his thicket by a storm of darts: Untaught to fear or fly, he hears the sounds Of shouting hunters, and of clamorous hounds; Though struck, though wounded, scarce perceives the pain; And the barb'd javelin stings his breast in vain: On their whole war, untamed, the savage flies; And tears his hunter, or beneath him dies.†
Book 21
- Now o'er the fields they stretch with lengthen'd strides, Now urge the course where swift Scamander glides: The god, now distant scarce a stride before, Tempts his pursuit, and wheels about the shore; While all the flying troops their speed employ, And pour on heaps into the walls of Troy: No stop, no stay; no thought to ask, or tell, Who 'scaped by flight, or who by battle fell.†
Book 21
- Scarce the whole people stop his desperate course, While strong affliction gives the feeble force: Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro, In all the raging impotence of woe.†
Book 22
- Scarce from the verge of death recall'd, again She faints, or but recovers to complain.†
Book 22
- With equal ardour bold Tydides swell'd, The steeds of Tros beneath his yoke compell'd (Which late obey'd the Dardan chiefs command, When scarce a god redeem'd him from his hand).†
Book 23
- Scarce did the chief the vigorous strife prop When tower-like Ajax and Ulysses rose.†
Book 23
- For scarce of mortal kind Appear thy form, thy feature, and thy mind.†
Book 24
- To watch this quarter, my adventure falls: For with the morn the Greeks attack your walls; Sleepless they sit, impatient to engage, And scarce their rulers check their martial rage.†
Book 24
- Large was the door, whose well-compacted strength A solid pine-tree barr'd of wondrous length: Scarce three strong Greeks could lift its mighty weight, But great Achilles singly closed the gate.†
Book 24
- Diomed, after the fall of Troy, was expelled his own country, and scarce escaped with his life from his adulterous wife AEgiale; but at last was received by Daunus in Apulia, and shared his kingdom; it is uncertain how he died.†
Book Cncl.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(scarcity) shortage (having an amount that is less than desired)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely (and typically in classic literature), scarce can be short for scarcely or hardly or barely or by a small margin -- such as in "She was scarce ten years old," or "I scarce know why."