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BOOK V

THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FROM CALYPSO

THE ARGUMENT

Pallas in a council of the Gods complains of the detention of Ulysses in the island of Calypso; whereupon Mercury is sent to command his removal. The seat of Calypso described. She consents with much difficulty; and Ulysses builds a vessel with his own hands, on which he embarks. Neptune overtakes him with a terrible tempest, in which he is shipwrecked, and in the last danger of death; till Leucothea, a sea-goddess, assists him, and, after innumerable perils, he gets ashore on Phæacia.

- The saffron Morn, with early blushes spread,
- Now rose refulgent from Tithonus’ bed;
- With new-born Day to gladden mortal sight,
- And gild the courts of Heav’n with sacred light.
- Then met th’ eternal Synod of the Sky, }
- Before the God, who thunders from on high, }
- Supreme in might, sublime in majesty. }
- Pallas, to these, deplores th’ unequal Fates
- Of wise Ulysses, and his toils relates:
- Her hero’s danger touch’d the pitying Power,10
- The nymph’s seducements, and the magic bower.
- Thus she began her plaint. ‘Immortal Jove!
- And you who fill the blissful seats above!
- Let Kings no more with gentle mercy sway,
- Or bless a people willing to obey,
- But crush the nations with an iron rod,
- And ev’ry Monarch be the scourge of God;
- If from your thoughts Ulysses you remove,
- Who ruled his subjects with a father’s love.
- Sole in an isle, encircled by the main,20
- Abandon’d, banish’d from his native reign,
- Unbless’d he sighs, detain’d by lawless charms,
- And press’d unwilling in Calypso’s arms.
- Nor friends are there, nor vessels to convey,
- Nor oars to cut th’ immeasurable way.
- And now fierce traitors, studious to destroy
- His only son, their ambush’d fraud employ;
- Who, pious, foll’wing his great father’s fame,
- To sacred Pylos and to Sparta came.’
- ‘What words are these?’ (replied the Power who forms30
- The clouds of night, and darkens Heav’n with storms);
- ‘Is not already in thy soul decreed,
- The Chief’s return shall make the guilty bleed?
- What cannot Wisdom do? Thou may’st restore
- The son in safety to his native shore;
- While the fell foes, who late in ambush lay,
- With fraud defeated measure back their way.’
- Then thus to Hermes the command was giv’n.
- ‘Hermes, thou chosen messenger of Heav’n!
- Go, to the Nymph be these our orders borne:40
- ’T is Jove’s decree, Ulysses shall return:
- The patient man shall view his old abodes,
- Nor help’d by mortal hand, nor guiding Gods:
- In twice ten days shall fertile Scheria find,
- Alone, and floating to the wave and wind.
- The bold Phæacians there, whose haughty line
- Is mix’d with Gods, half human, half divine,
- The Chief shall honour as some heav’nly guest,
- And swift transport him to his place of rest.49
- His vessels loaded with a plenteous store
- Of brass, of vestures, and resplendent ore
- (A richer prize than if his joyful isle
- Receiv’d him charged with Ilion’s noble spoil),
- His friends, his country, he shall see, tho’ late;
- Such is our sov’reign will, and such is Fate.’
- He spoke. The God who mounts the winged winds
- Fast to his feet the golden pinions binds,
- That high thro’ fields of air his flight sustain
- O’er the wide earth, and o’er the boundless main.
- He grasps the wand that causes sleep to fly,60
- Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye:
- Then shoots from Heav’n to high Pieria’s steep,
- And stoops incumbent on the rolling deep.
- So wat’ry fowl, that seek their fishy food,
- With wings expanded o’er the foaming flood,
- Now sailing smooth the level surface sweep,
- Now dip their pinious in the briny deep.
- Thus o’er the world of waters Hermes flew,
- Till now the distant island rose in view:
- Then, swift ascending from the azure wave,70
- He took the path that winded to the cave.
- Large was the grot, in which the Nymph he found
- (The fair-hair’d Nymph with ev’ry beauty crown’d);
- She sate and sung; the rocks resound her lays;
- The cave was brighten’d with a rising blaze;
- Cedar and frankincense, an od’rous pile,
- Flamed on the hearth and wide perfumed the isle;
- While she with work and song the time divides,
- And thro’ the loom the golden shuttle guides.
- Without the grot a various sylvan scene80
- Appear’d around, and groves of living green;
- Poplars and alders ever quiv’ring play’d,
- And nodding cypress form’d a fragrant shade;
- On whose high branches, waving with the storm,
- The birds of broadest wing their mansions form,
- The chough, the sea-mew, the loquacious crow,
- And scream aloft, and skim the deeps below.
- Depending vines the shelving cavern screen,
- With purple clusters blushing thro’ the green.
- Four limpid fountains from the clefts distil;90 }
- And ev’ry fountain pours a sev’ral rill, }
- In mazy windings wand’ring down the hill; }
- Where bloomy meads with vivid greens were crown’d,
- And glowing violets threw odours round.
- A scene, where if a God should cast his sight,
- A God might gaze, and wander with delight!
- Joy touch’d the Messenger of Heav’n: he stay’d
- Entranc’d, and all the blissful haunts survey’d.
- Him, ent’ring in the cave, Calypso knew;
- For Powers celestial to each other’s view100
- Stand still confess’d, tho’ distant far they lie
- To habitants of earth, or sea, or sky.
- But sad Ulysses, by himself apart,
- Pour’d the big sorrows of his swelling heart;
- All on the lonely shore he sate to weep,
- And roll’d his eyes around the restless deep;
- Toward his lov’d coast he roll’d his eyes in vain,
- Till, dimm’d with rising grief, they stream’d again.
- Now graceful seated on her shining throne,
- To Hermes thus the Nymph divine begun:110
- ‘God of the Golden Wand! on what behest
- Arrivest thou here, an unexpected guest?
- Lov’d as thou art, thy free injunctions lay:
- ’T is mine with joy and duty to obey.
- Till now a stranger, in a happy hour
- Approach, and taste the dainties of my bower.’
- Thus having spoke, the Nymph the table spread
- (Ambrosial cates, with nectar rosy-red);
- Hermes the hospitable rite partook,119
- Divine refection! then, recruited, spoke:
- ‘What mov’d this journey from my native sky,
- A Goddess asks, nor can a God deny:
- Hear then the truth. By mighty Jove’s command
- Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land;
- For who, self-mov’d, with weary wing would sweep
- Such length of ocean and unmeasured deep:
- A world of waters! far from all the ways
- Where men frequent, or sacred altars blaze?
- But to Jove’s will submission we must pay;129
- What Power so great to dare to disobey?
- A man, he says, a man resides with thee,
- Of all his kind most worn with misery;
- The Greeks (whose arms for nine long years employ’d
- Their force on Ilion, in the tenth destroy’d),
- At length embarking in a luckless hour,
- With conquest proud, incens’d Minerva’s power:
- Hence on the guilty race her vengeance hurl’d
- With storms pursued them thro’ the liquid world.
- There all his vessels sunk beneath the wave!
- There all his dear companions found their grave!140
- Saved from the jaws of death by Heav’n’s decree,
- The tempest drove him to these shores and thee.
- Him, Jove now orders to his native lands
- Straight to dismiss: so destiny commands:
- Impatient Fate his near return attends,
- And calls him to his country, and his friends.’
- Ev’n to her inmost soul the Goddess shook;
- Then thus her anguish and her passion broke:
- ‘Ungracious Gods! with spite and envy curs’d!149
- Still to your own ethereal race the worst!
- Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,
- And love, the only sweet of life, destroy.
- Did ever Goddess by her charms engage
- A favour’d mortal, and not feel your rage?
- So when Aurora sought Orion’s love,
- Her joys disturb’d your blissful hours above,
- Till, in Ortygia, Dian’s winged dart
- Had pierc’d the hapless hunter to the heart.
- So when the covert of the thrice-ear’d field
- Saw stately Ceres to her passion yield,160
- Scarce could Iasion taste her heav’nly charms,
- But Jove’s swift lightning scorch’d him in her arms.
- ‘And is it now my turn, ye mighty Powers!
- Am I the envy of your blissful bowers?
- A man, an outcast to the storm and wave,
- It was my crime to pity and to save;
- When he who thunders rent his bark in twain,
- And sunk his brave companions in the main.
- Alone, abandon’d, in mid-ocean toss’d,
- The sport of winds, and driv’n from ev’ry coast,170
- Hither this man of miseries I led,
- Receiv’d the friendless, and the hungry fed;
- Nay, promis’d (vainly promis’d!) to bestow
- Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
- ’T is past—and Jove decrees he shall remove:
- Gods as we are, we are but slaves to Jove.
- Go then he may (he must, if he ordain,
- Try all those dangers, all those deeps, again);
- But never, never shall Calypso send
- To toils like these her husband and her friend.180
- What ships have I, what sailors to convey,
- What oars to cut the long laborious way?
- Yet I ’ll direct the safest means to go;
- That last advice is all I can bestow.’
- To her the Power who bears the Charming Rod:
- ‘Dismiss the man, nor irritate the God;
- Prevent the rage of him who reigns above,
- For what so dreadful as the wrath of Jove?’
- Thus having said, he cut the cleaving sky,
- And in a moment vanish’d from her eye.190
- The Nymph, obedient to divine command,
- To seek Ulysses paced along the sand,
- Him pensive on the lonely beach she found,
- With streaming eyes in briny torrents drown’d,
- And inly pining for his native shore;
- For now the soft enchantress pleas’d no more:
- For now, reluctant, and constrain’d by charms,
- Absent he lay in her desiring arms:
- In slumber wore the heavy night away,
- On rocks and shores consumed the tedious day;200
- There sate all desolate, and sigh’d alone,
- With echoing sorrows made the mountains groan,
- And roll’d his eyes o’er all the restless main,
- Till, dimm’d with rising grief, they stream’d again.
- Here, on his musing mood the Goddess press’d
- Approaching soft; and thus the Chief address’d:
- ‘Unhappy man! to wasting woes a prey,
- No more in sorrows languish life away:
- Free as the winds I give thee now to rove—
- Go, fell the timber of yon lofty grove,210
- And form a raft, and build the rising ship,
- Sublime to bear thee o’er the gloomy deep.
- To store the vessel let the care be mine,
- With water from the rock, and rosy wine,
- And life-sustaining bread, and fair array,
- And prosp’rous gales to waft thee on the way.
- These, if the Gods with my desire comply
- (The Gods, alas, more mighty far than I,
- And better skill’d in dark events to come),
- In peace shall land thee at thy native home.’220
- With sighs Ulysses heard the words she spoke,
- Then thus his melancholy silence broke:
- ‘Some other motive, Goddess! sways thy mind
- (Some close design, or turn of womankind),
- Nor my return the end, nor this the way,
- On a slight raft to pass the swelling sea,
- Huge, horrid, vast! where scarce in safety sails
- The best-built ship, tho’ Jove inspire the gales.
- The bold proposal how shall I fulfil,
- Dark as I am, unconscious of thy will?230
- Swear, then, thou mean’st not what my soul forebodes;
- Swear by the solemn oath that binds the Gods.’
- Him, while he spoke, with smiles Calypso eyed,
- And gently grasp’d his hand, and thus replied:
- ‘This shows thee, friend, by old experience taught,
- And learn’d in all the wiles of human thought,
- How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
- But hear, O earth, and hear, ye sacred skies!
- And thou, O Styx! whose formidable floods
- Glide thro’ the shades, and bind th’ attesting Gods!240
- No form’d design, no meditated end,
- Lurks in the council of thy faithful friend;
- Kind the persuasion, and sincere my aim;
- The same my practice, were my fate the same.
- Heav’n has not curs’d me with a heart of steel,
- But given the sense to pity and to feel.’
- Thus having said, the Goddess march’d before:
- He trod her footsteps in the sandy shore.
- At the cool cave arrived, they took their state;
- He fill’d the throne where Mercury had sate.250
- For him the Nymph a rich repast ordains,
- Such as the mortal life of man sustains;
- Before herself were placed the cates divine,
- Ambrosial banquet, and celestial wine.
- Their hunger satiate, and their thirst repress’d,
- Thus spoke Calypso to her godlike guest:
- ‘Ulysses!’ (with a sigh she thus began)
- ‘O sprung from Gods! in wisdom more than man!
- Is then thy home the passion of thy heart?
- Thus wilt thou leave me, are we thus to part?260
- Farewell! and ever joyful may’st thou be,
- Nor break the transport with one thought of me.
- But, ah, Ulysses! wert thou giv’n to know
- What Fate yet dooms thee, yet, to undergo;
- Thy heart might settle in this scene of ease,
- And ev’n these slighted charms might learn to please.
- A willing Goddess, and immortal life,
- Might banish from thy mind an absent wife.
- Am I inferior to a mortal dame?
- Less soft my feature, lest august my frame?270
- Or shall the daughters of mankind compare
- Their earth-born beauties with the heav’nly fair?’
- ‘Alas! for this’ (the prudent man replies)
- ‘Against Ulysses shall thy anger rise?
- Lov’d and ador’d, O Goddess, as thou art,
- Forgive the weakness of a human heart.
- Tho’ well I see thy graces far above
- The dear, tho’ mortal, object of my love,
- Of youth eternal well the diff’rence know,
- And the short date of fading charms below;280
- Yet ev’ry day, while absent thus I roam,
- I languish to return and die at home.
- Whate’er the Gods shall destine me to bear
- In the black ocean, or the wat’ry war,
- ’T is 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 be done!’
- Thus while he spoke, the beamy sun descends,
- And rising night her friendly shade extends.290
- 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 glitt’ring on the ground.
- Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield
- A weighty axe, with truest temper steel’d,
- And double-edg’d; the handle smooth and plain,301
- Wrought of the clouded olive’s easy grain;
- And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway:
- Then to the neighb’ring forest led the way.
- On the lone island’s utmost verge there stood
- Of poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
- Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,
- Scorch’d by the sun, or sear’d by heav’nly fire
- (Already dried). These pointing out to view,
- The Nymph just show’d him, and with tears withdrew.310
- 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 smoothed and squared them by the rule and line
- (The wimbles for the work Calypso found).
- With those he pierc’d them, and with clinchers bound.
- Long and capacious as a shipwright forms
- Some bark’s broad bottom to out-ride the storms,320
- 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;
- Then o’er the vessel rais’d the taper mast,
- With crossing sail-yards dancing in the wind;
- And to the helm the guiding rudder join’d
- (With yielding osiers fenc’d, to break the force
- Of surging waves, and steer the steady course).
- Thy loom, Calypso! for the future sails329
- Supplied the cloth, capacious of the gales.
- With stays and cordage last he rigg’d the ship,
- And, roll’d on levers, launch’d her in the deep.
- Four days were past, and now, the work complete,
- Shone the fifth morn, when from her sacred seat
- The Nymph dismiss’d him (od’rous garments giv’n,
- And bathed in fragrant oils that breathed of Heav’n):
- Then fill’d two goat-skins with her hands divine,
- With water one, and one with sable wine:
- Of ev’ry kind provisions heav’d aboard;
- And the full decks with copious viands stor’d.340
- The Goddess, last, a gentle breeze supplies,
- To curl old Ocean, and to warm the skies.
- And now, rejoicing in the prosp’rous gales,
- With beating heart Ulysses spreads his sails:
- Placed at the helm he sate, and mark’d the skies,
- Nor closed in sleep his ever-watchful eyes.
- There view’d the Pleiads, and the Northern Team,
- And great Orion’s more refulgent beam,
- To which, around the axle of the sky,349
- The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye:
- Who shines exalted on th’ ethereal plain,
- Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main.
- Far on the left those radiant fires to keep
- The Nymph directed, as he sail’d the deep.
- Full sev’nteen nights he cut the foamy way;
- The distant land appear’d the foll’wing day:
- Then swell’d to sight Phæacia’s dusky coast,
- And woody mountains, half in vapours lost;
- That lay before him indistinct and vast,359
- Like a broad shield amid the wat’ry waste.
- But him, thus voyaging the deeps below,
- From far, on Solyme’s aërial brow,
- The King of Ocean saw, and seeing burn’d
- (From Æthiopia’s happy climes return’d);
- The raging Monarch shook his azure head,
- And thus in secret to his soul he said:
- ‘Heav’ns! how uncertain are the Powers on high!
- Is then revers’d the sentence of the sky,
- In one man’s favour: while a distant guest
- I shared secure the Æthiopian feast?370
- Behold how near Phæacia’s land he draws!
- The land affix’d by Fate’s eternal laws
- To end his toils. Is then our anger vain?
- No; if this sceptre yet commands the main.’
- He spoke, and high the forky trident hurl’d,
- Rolls clouds on clouds, and stirs the wat’ry world,
- At once the face of earth and sea deforms,
- Swells all the winds, and rouses all the storms.
- Down rush’d the night: east, west, together roar;
- And south and north roll mountains to the shore:380
- Then shook the hero, to despair resign’d,
- And question’d thus his yet unconquer’d mind:
- ‘Wretch that I am! what farther Fates attend
- This life of toils, and what my destin’d end?
- Too well, alas! the island Goddess knew
- On the black sea what perils should ensue.
- New horrors now this destin’d head enclose;
- Unfill’d as yet the measure of my woes:
- With what a cloud the brows of Heav’n are crown’d!
- What raging winds! what roaring waters round!390
- ’T is Jove himself the swelling tempest rears;
- Death, present death, on ev’ry side appears.
- Happy! thrice happy! who, in battle slain,
- Press’d, in Atrides’ cause, the Trojan plain!
- Oh! had I died before that well-fought wall;
- Had some distinguish’d day renown’d my fall
- (Such as was that when showers of jav’lins fled
- From conquering Troy around Achilles dead);
- All Greece had paid me solemn funerals then,399
- And spread my glory with the sons of men.
- A shameful fate now hides my hapless head,
- Unwept, unnoted, and for ever dead!’
- A mighty wave rush’d o’er him as he spoke,
- The raft it cover’d, and the mast it broke:
- Swept from the deck, and from the rudder torn,
- Far on the swelling surge the Chief was borne;
- While by the howling tempest rent in twain
- Flew sail and sail-yards rattling o’er the main.
- Long-press’d, he heav’d beneath the weighty wave,
- Clogg’d by the cumb’rous vest Calypso gave:410
- At length emerging, from his nostrils wide
- And gushing mouth effused the briny tide;
- Ev’n then, not mindless of his last retreat,
- He seiz’d the raft, and leap’d into his seat,
- Strong with the fear of death. The 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 th’ 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,421 }
- And now the east the foamy floods obey, }
- And now the west wind whirls it o’er the sea. }
- The wand’ring 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 Heav’n decrees430
- 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 heav’nly scarf beneath thy bosom bind,440
- 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 cover’d with the curling sea.
- Struck with amaze, yet still to doubt ininclin’d,450
- He stands suspended, and explores his mind.
- ‘What shall I do? unhappy me! who knows
- But other Gods intend me other woes?
- Whoe’er thou art, I shall not blindly join
- Thy pleaded reason, but consult with mine:
- For scarce in ken appears that distant isle
- Thy voice foretells me shall conclude my toil.
- Thus then I judge: while yet the planks sustain
- The wild waves’ fury, here I fix’d remain:
- But when their texture to the tempest yields,460
- I launch adventurous on the liquid fields,
- Join to the help of Gods the strength of man,
- And take this method, since the best I can.’
- While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold,
- The raging God a wat’ry mountain roll’d;
- Like a black sheet the whelming billows spread,
- Burst o’er the float, and thunder’d on his head.
- Planks, beams, disparted fly; the scatter’d wood
- Rolls diverse, and in fragments strews the flood.
- So the rude Boreas, o’er the field newshorn,470
- Tosses and drives the scatter’d heaps of corn.
- And now a single beam the chief bestrides:
- There, pois’d awhile above the bounding tides,
- His limbs discumbers of the clinging vest,
- And binds the sacred cincture round his breast;
- Then, prone on ocean in a moment flung,
- Stretch’d wide his eager arms, and shot the seas along.
- All naked now, on heaving billows laid,
- Stern Neptune eyed him, and contemptuous said:
- ‘Go, learn’d in woes, and other foes essay!480
- Go, wander helpless on the wat’ry way:
- Thus, thus find out the destin’d shore, and then
- (If Jove ordains it) mix with happier men:
- Whate’er thy fate, the ills our wrath could raise
- Shall last remember’d in thy best of days.’
- This said, his sea-green steeds divide the foam,
- And reach high Ægæ and the tow’ry dome.
- Now, scarce withdrawn the fierce earthshaking Power,
- Jove’s daughter Pallas watch’d the fav’ring hour;
- Back to their caves she bade the winds to fly,490
- And hush’d the blust’ring Brethren of the Sky.
- The drier blasts alone of Boreas sway,
- And bear him soft on broken waves away;
- With gentle force impelling to that shore,
- Where Fate has destin’d he shall toil no more.
- And now two nights and now two days were past,
- Since wide he wander’d on the wat’ry waste;
- Heav’d on the surge with intermitting breath,
- And hourly painting in the arms of Death.
- The third fair morn now blazed upon the main;500
- Then glassy smooth lay all the liquid plain;
- The winds were hush’d, the billows scarcely curl’d,
- And a dead silence still’d the wat’ry world,
- When, lifted on a ridgy wave, he spies
- The land at distance, and with sharpen’d eyes.
- As pious children joy with vast delight
- When a lov’d sire revives before their sight
- (Who, ling’ring long, has call’d on death in vain,508
- Fix’d by some demon to his bed of pain,
- Till Heav’n by miracle his life restore);
- So joys Ulysses at th’ appearing shore;
- And sees (and labours onward as he sees)
- The rising forests, and the tufted trees.
- And now, as near approaching as the sound
- Of human voice the list’ning ear may wound,
- Amidst the rocks he hears a hollow roar
- Of murm’ring surges breaking on the shore:
- Nor peaceful port was there, nor winding bay,
- To shield the vessel from the rolling sea,
- But cliffs, and shaggy shores, a dreadful sight!520
- All rough with rocks, with foamy billows white.
- Fear seiz’d his slacken’d limbs and beating heart,
- And thus he communed with his soul apart:
- ‘Ah me! when o’er a length of waters toss’d,
- These eyes at last behold th’ unhoped-for coast,
- No port receives me from the angry main,
- But the loud deeps demand me back again.
- Above sharp rocks forbid access; around
- Roar the wild waves; beneath is sea profound!529
- No footing sure affords the faithless sand,
- To stem too rapid, and too deep to stand.
- If here I enter, my efforts are vain,
- Dash’d on the cliffs or heav’d into the main:
- Or round the island if my course I bend,
- Where the ports open, or the shores descend,
- Back to the seas the rolling surge may sweep,
- And bury all my hopes beneath the deep.
- Or some enormous whale the God may send
- (For many such on Amphitrite attend);
- Too well the turns of mortal chance I know,540
- And hate relentless of my heav’nly 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.549
- 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,
- Th’ unhappy man; ev’n 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 survey560
- Some smooth ascent, or safe sequester’d bay.
- Between the parting rocks at length he spied
- A falling stream with gentler waters glide;
- Where to the seas the shelving shore declin’d,
- 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 wat’ry throne,
- Hear, azure King! nor let me fly in vain570
- To thee from Neptune and the raging main.
- Heav’n hears and pities hapless men like me,
- For sacred ev’n 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 wand’rer smooths the wat’ry way,
- And soft receives him from the rolling sea.
- That moment, fainting as he touch’d the shore,580
- He dropp’d his sinewy arms; his knees no more
- Perform’d their office, or his weight upheld;
- His swoln heart heav’d; his bloated body swell’d;
- From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran;
- And lost in lassitude lay all the man,
- Deprived of voice, of motion, and of breath;
- The soul scarce waking in the arms of death.
- Soon as warm life its wonted office found,
- The mindful chief Leucothea’s scarf unbound;
- Observant of her word, he turn’d aside590
- His head, and cast it on the rolling tide.
- Behind him far, upon the purple waves
- The waters waft it, and the nymph receives.
- Now parting from the stream, Ulysses found }
- A mossy bank with pliant rushes crown’d; }
- The bank he press’d, and gently kiss’d the ground; }
- Where on the flow’ry herb as soft he lay,
- Thus to his soul the sage began to say:
- ‘What will ye next ordain, ye Powers on high!
- And yet, ah yet, what fates are we to try?600
- Here by the stream, if I the night outwear, }
- Thus spent already, how shall nature bear }
- The dews descending, and nocturnal air? }
- Or chilly vapours breathing from the flood
- When morning rises?—If I take the wood,
- And in thick shelter of innumerous boughs
- Enjoy the comfort gentle sleep allows;
- Tho’ fenc’d from cold, and tho’ my toil be past,
- What savage beasts may wander in the waste!
- Perhaps I yet may fall a bloody prey610
- To prowling bears, or lions in the way.’
- Thus long debating in himself he stood:
- At length he took the passage to the wood,
- Whose shady horrors on a rising brow
- Waved high, and frown’d upon the stream below.
- There grew two olives, closest of the grove,
- With roots entwin’d, and branches interwove;
- Alike their leaves, but not alike they smil’d
- With sister-fruits; one fertile, one was wild.
- Nor here the sun’s meridian rays had power,620
- Nor wind sharp-piercing, nor the rushing shower;
- The verdant arch so close its texture kept:
- Beneath this covert great Ulysses crept.
- Of gather’d leaves an ample bed he made
- (Thick strewn by tempest thro’ the bow’ry shade);
- Where three at least might winter’s cold defy,
- Tho’ Boreas raged along th’ inclement sky.
- This store with joy the patient hero found,
- And, sunk amidst them, heap’d the leaves around.
- As some poor peasant, fated to reside630
- Remote from neighbours in a forest wide,
- Studious to save what human wants require,
- In embers heap’d, preserves the seeds of fire:
- Hid in dry foliage thus Ulysses lies,
- Till Pallas pour’d soft slumbers on his eyes:
- And golden dreams (the gift of sweet repose)
- Lull’d all his cares, and banish’d all his woes.

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BOOK V: THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FROM CALYPSO - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

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BOOK V

THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FROM CALYPSO

THE ARGUMENT