Vengeance, ye powers, (he cries) and thou whose hand Aims the red bolt, and hurls the writhen brand ! Slain are those herds which I with pride survey, When through the ports of Heaven I pour the day. Or deep in Ocean plunge the burning ray. Vengeance, ye Gods ! or I the skies forego,

45 And bear the lamp of heaven to shades below..

To whom the Thundering Power: 0 Source of Day! Whose radiant lamp adorns the azure way, Still may thy beams through heaven's bright portals rise, The joy of earth, and glory of the skies ; 455 Lo! my red arm I bare, my thunders guide, To dash th offenders in the whelming tide.

To fair Calypso, from the bright abodes, Hermes convey'd these councils of the Gods.

Meantime from man to man my tongue exclaims, My wrath is kindled, and my soul in flames. · In vain! I view perform’d the direful deed, Beeves, Nain by heaps, along the ocean bleed.

Now Heaven gave signs of wrath; along the ground Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound Roar'd the dead limbs; the burning entrails groan'd. Six guilty days my wretched mates employ In impious feasting, and unhallow'd joy ; The seventh arose, and now the Sire of Gods Rein’d the rough storms, and calm’d the tossing floods: With speed the bark we climb; the spacious fails Loos’d from the yards invite th' impelling gales. Past sight of shore, along the surge we bound, And all above is lky, and ocean all around !

When 5

When, lo! a murky cloud the Thunderer forms

75
Full o'er our heads, and blackens heaven with storms.
Night dwells o’er all the deep : and now outflies
The gloomy West, and whistles in the skies.
The mountain-billows roar! the furious blast
Howls o'er the fhroud, and rends it from the mast :
The mast gives way, and, crackling as it bends,
Tears

up the deck; then all at once descends;
The pilot by the tumbling ruin Aain,
Dash'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main.
Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll, 485
And forky lightnings flash from pole to pole.
Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims,
Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapt in flames :
Full on the bark it fell; now high, now low,
Tofs'd and retoss'd, it reel'd beneath the blow; 490
At once into the main the crew it shook :
Sulphureous odours rose, and smouldering smoke.
Like fowl that haunt the floods, they fink, they rise,
Now loft, now seen, with shrieks and dreadful cries;
And strive to gain the bark; but Jove denies.
Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main
Rush'd with dire noise, and dash'd the sides in twain ;
Again impetuous drove the furious blast,
Snapt the strong helm, and bore to sea the mast.
Firm to the malt with cords the helm I bind,
And ride aloft, to Providence resign'd,
Through tumbling billows, and a war of wind.

Now sunk the West, and now a Southern breeze
More dreadful than the tempest, lash'd the seas ;

For

}

}

510

a

For on the rocks it bore where Scylla raves, 505
And dire Charybdis rolls her thundering waves.
All night I drove ; and at the dawn of day,
Fast by the rocks beheld the desperate way :
Just when the sea within her gulfs subsides,
And in the roaring whirlpools rush the tides,
Swift from the float I vaulted with a bound,
The lofty fig-tree seiz'd, and clung around,
So to the beam the bat tenacious clings,
And pendent round it clasps his leathern wings.
High in the air the tree its boughs display'd,

515
And o'er the dungeon cast a dreadful shade,
All unsustaind between the wave and sky,
Beneath my feet the whirling billows fly,
What-time the judge forsakes the noisy bar
To take repast, and stills the wordy war ;

520 Charybdis rumbling from her inmost caves, The maft refunded on her refluent waves. Swift from the tree, the floating mast to gain, Sudden I dropp'd amidst the flashing main ; Once more undaunted on the ruin rode,

525 And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood. Unseen I pass’d by Scylla's dire abodes : So Jove decreed (dread Sire of men and gods). Then nine long days I plough'd the calmer seas, Heav’d by the surge, and wafted by the breeze. 530 Weary and wet th’ Ogygian fhores I gain, When the tenth fun descended to the main. There, in Calypso's ever-fragrant bowers, Refrela'd I lay, and joy beguild the hours.

My

My following fates to thee, O King, are known,
And the bright partner of thy royal throne.
Enough: in misery can words avail ?
And what so tedious as a twice-told tale ?

5

CONTENTS