I languish to return and die at home.

Whate’er the gods shall destine me to bear;

In the black ocean or the watery war,

’Tis mine to master with a constant mind;

Inured to perils, to the worst resign’d,

By seas, by wars, so many dangers run;

Still I can suffer; their high will he done!”


Thus while he spoke, the beamy sun descends,

And rising night her friendly shade extends,

To the close grot the lonely pair remove,

And slept delighted with the gifts of love.

When rosy morning call’d them from their rest,

Ulysses robed him in the cloak and vest.

The nymph’s fair head a veil transparent graced,

Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced

With flowers of gold; an under robe, unbound,

In snowy waves flow’d glittering on the ground.

Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield

A weighty axe with truest temper steeled,

And double-edged; the handle smooth and plain,

Wrought of the clouded olive’s easy grain;

And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway

Then to the neighboring forest led the way.

On the lone island’s utmost verge there stood

Of poplars, pine, and firs, a lofty wood,

Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,

Scorch’d by the sun, or seared by heavenly fire

(Already dried). These pointing out to view,

The nymph just show’d him, and with tears withdrew.


Now toils the hero: trees on trees o’erthrown

Fall crackling round him, and the forests groan:

Sudden, full twenty on the plain are strow’d,

And lopp’d and lighten’d of their branchy load.

At equal angles these disposed to join,

He smooth’d and squared them by the rule and line,

(The wimbles for the work Calypso found)

With those he pierced them and with clinchers bound.

Long and capacious as a shipwright forms

Some bark’s broad bottom to out-ride the storms,

So large he built the raft; then ribb’d it strong

From space to space, and nail’d the planks along;

These form’d the sides: the deck he fashion’d last;