Ulysses sole with air majestic stands,

The bowl presenting to Arete’s hands;

Then thus: “O queen, farewell! be still possess’d

Of dear remembrance, blessing still and bless’d!

Till age and death shall gently call thee hence,

(Sure fate of every mortal excellence!)

Farewell! and joys successive ever spring

To thee, to thine, the people, and the king!”


Thus he: then parting prints the sandy shore

To the fair port: a herald march’d before,

Sent by Alcinous; of Arete’s train

Three chosen maids attend him to the main;

This does a tunic and white vest convey,

A various casket that, of rich inlay,

And bread and wine the third. The cheerful mates

Safe in the hollow poop dispose the cates;

Upon the deck soft painted robes they spread

With linen cover’d, for the hero’s bed.

He climbed the lofty stern; then gently press’d

The swelling couch, and lay composed to rest.


Now placed in order, the Phæacian train

Their cables loose, and launch into the main;

At once they bend, and strike their equal oars,

And leave the sinking hills and lessening shores.

While on the deck the chief in silence lies,

And pleasing slumbers steal upon his eyes.

As fiery coursers in the rapid race

Urged by fierce drivers through the dusty space,

Toss their high heads, and scour along the plain,

So mounts the bounding vessel o’er the main.

Back to the stern the parted billows flow,

And the black ocean foams and roars below.


Thus with spread sails the winged galley flies;

Less swift an eagle cuts the liquid skies;

Divine Ulysses was her sacred load,

A man, in wisdom equal to a god!

Much danger, long and mighty toils he bore,

In storms by sea, and combats on the shore;

All which soft sleep now banish’d from his breast,

Wrapp’d in a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest.


But when the morning-star with early ray

Flamed in the front of heaven, and promised day;

Like distant clouds the mariner descries