And bury all my hopes beneath the deep.

Or some enormous whale the god may send

(For many such an Amphitrite attend);

Too well the turns of mortal chance I know,

And hate relentless of my heavenly foe.”

While thus he thought, a monstrous wave upbore

The chief, and dash’d him on the craggy shore;

Torn was his skin, nor had the ribs been whole,

But Instant Pallas enter’d in his soul.

Close to the cliff with both his hands he clung,

And stuck adherent, and suspended hung;

Till the huge surge roll’d off; then backward sweep

The refluent tides, and plunge him in the deep.

As when the polypus, from forth his cave

Torn with full force, reluctant beats the wave,

His ragged claws are stuck with stones and sands;

So the rough rock had shagg’d Ulysses hands,

And now had perish’d, whelm’d beneath the main,

The unhappy man; e’en fate had been in vain;

But all-subduing Pallas lent her power,

And prudence saved him in the needful hour.

Beyond the beating surge his course he bore,

(A wider circle, but in sight of shore),

With longing eyes, observing, to survey

Some smooth ascent, or safe sequester’d bay.

Between the parting rocks at length he spied

A failing stream with gentler waters glide;

Where to the seas the shelving shore declined,

And form’d a bay impervious to the wind.

To this calm port the glad Ulysses press’d,

And hail’d the river, and its god address’d:


“Whoe’er thou art, before whose stream unknown

I bend, a suppliant at thy watery throne,

Hear, azure king! nor let me fly in vain

To thee from Neptune and the raging main

Heaven hears and pities hapless men like me,

For sacred even to gods is misery:

Let then thy waters give the weary rest,

And save a suppliant, and a man distress’d.”


He pray’d, and straight the gentle stream subsides,

Detains the rushing current of his tides,

Before the wanderer smooths the watery way,

And soft receives him from the rolling sea.