Then sable night ascends, and balmy rest

Seals every eye, and calms the troubled breast.

Then curious she commands me to relate

The dreadful scenes of Pluto’s dreary state.

She sat in silence while the tale I tell,

The wondrous visions and the laws of hell.


“Then thus: ‘The lot of man the gods dispose;

These ills are past: now hear thy future woes

O prince attend; some favouring power be kind,

And print the important story on thy mind!


“‘Next, where the Sirens dwell, you plough the seas;

Their song is death, and makes destruction please.

Unblest the man, whom music wins to stay

Nigh the cursed shore and listen to the lay.

No more that wretch shall view the joys of life

His blooming offspring, or his beauteous wife!

In verdant meads they sport; and wide around

Lie human bones that whiten all the ground:

The ground polluted floats with human gore,

And human carnage taints the dreadful shore

Fly swift the dangerous coast: let every ear

Be stopp’d against the song! ’tis death to hear!

Firm to the mast with chains thyself be bound,

Nor trust thy virtue to the enchanting sound.

If, mad with transport, freedom thou demand,

Be every fetter strain’d, and added band to band.


“‘These seas o’erpass’d, be wise! but I refrain

To mark distinct thy voyage o’er the main:

New horrors rise! let prudence be thy guide,

And guard thy various passage through the tide.


“‘High o’er the main two rocks exalt their brow,’

The boiling billows thundering roll below;

Through the vast waves the dreadful wonders move,

Hence named Erratic by the gods above.

No bird of air, no dove of swiftest wing,

That bears ambrosia to the ethereal king,

Shuns the dire rocks: in vain she cuts the skies;

The dire rocks meet, and crush her as she flies:

Not the fleet bark, when prosperous breezes play,

Ploughs o’er that roaring surge its desperate way;

O’erwhelm’d it sinks: while round a smoke expires,