Long-press’d, he heaved beneath the weighty wave,

Clogg’d by the cumbrous vest Calypso gave;

At length, emerging, from his nostrils wide

And gushing mouth effused the briny tide;

E’en then not mindless of his last retreat,

He seized the raft, and leap’d into his seat,

Strong with the fear of death. In rolling flood,

Now here, now there, impell’d the floating wood

As when a heap of gather’d thorns is cast,

Now to, now fro, before the autumnal blast;

Together clung, it rolls around the field;

So roll’d the float, and so its texture held:

And now the south, and now the north, bear sway,

And now the east the foamy floods obey,

And now the west wind whirls it o’er the sea.

The wandering chief with toils on toils oppress’d,

Leucothea saw, and pity touch’d her breast.

(Herself a mortal once, of Cadmus’ strain,

But now an azure sister of the main)

Swift as a sea-mew springing from the flood,

All radiant on the raft the goddess stood;

Then thus address’d him: “Thou whom heaven decrees

To Neptune’s wrath, stern tyrant of the seas!

(Unequal contest!) not his rage and power,

Great as he is, such virtue shall devour.

What I suggest, thy wisdom will perform:

Forsake thy float, and leave it to the storm;

Strip off thy garments; Neptune’s fury brave

With naked strength, and plunge into the wave.

To reach Phæacia all thy nerves extend,

There Fate decrees thy miseries shall end.

This heavenly scarf beneath thy bosom bind,

And live; give all thy terrors to the wind.

Soon as thy arms the happy shore shall gain,

Return the gift, and cast it in the main:

Observe my orders, and with heed obey,

Cast it far off, and turn thy eyes away.”


With that, her hand the sacred veil bestows,

Then down the deeps she dived from whence she rose;

A moment snatch’d the shining form away,

And all was covered with the curling sea.


Struck with amaze, yet still to doubt inclined,

He stands suspended, and explores his mind: