Classic Poem

5. Poseidon.
The sun's bright rays were playing
Over the far-away rolling sea;
Far in the roadway sparkled the ship
Which soon should bear me homeward swiftly;
But we were waiting for favouring breezes,
And I sat unmoved on the gleaming sand-hills,
Alone on the beach.
And I read the song of Odysseus,
The ancient story that is ever young;
Forth from whose sea-resounding pages
Gleefully came to meet me
The breath of Immortals,
And the light of Humanity's spring-time,
And the flowering heaven of Hellas.

Faithfully my constant heart did follow
The son of Laertes in wandering and peril,
Sat at his side, with a troubled spirit,
At welcoming hearths,
Where Queens were seated, weaving purple,
And helped him in lying, and helped him in flitting
From giants' caverns and arms of the Naiads,
Followed his steps in Cimmerian night,
And through storm and shipwreck,
Suffering with him unspeakable anguish.

Sighing I spoke: " Oh, evil Poseidon,
Thy wrath is fearful,
Dread fills my soul
For my voyage homeward. "
Scarce spoke I the words, when
Foam whitened the sea;
And from the seething waters rose
The sedge-wreathed head of the sea-God,
And scornful he cried:

" Banish thy fear, Poetaster!
Not in the slightest will I imperil
Thy pitiful bark;
No, nor make wretched a life so precious
By all-too-alarming a rocking,
For thou, Poetaster, hast never aroused
My anger; in Priam's thrice-sacred stronghold
No tiny turret hast thou harmed;
No hair, however minute, hast thou singed
On the eyebrow of son Polyphemus,
And the goddess of Wisdom, Pallas Athene!
Sure never directed thy way with her counsels. "

Thus Poseidon bawled
Whilst plunging back to the sea;
And lo! at the insolent sea-dog's wit,
Amphitrite, the portly fishwife,
And the silly daughters of Nereus,
Laughed aloud under the water.