With less, and with the galley feeds her eyes;
The galley borne from view by rising gales,
She follow’d with her sight the flying sails;
When ev’n the flying sails were seen no more,
Forsaken of all sight she left the shore.
Then on her bridal bed her body throws
And sought in sleep her wearied eyes to close;
Her husband’s pillow, and the widow’d part
Which once he press’d, renew’d the former smart.
And now a breeze from shore began to blow,
The sailors ship their oars, and cease to row,
Then hoist their yards a-trip, and all their sails
Let fall, to court the wind, and catch the gales.
By this the vessel half her course had run,
And as much rested till the rising sun;
Both shores were lost to sight, when at the close
Of day a stiffer gale at east arose:
The sea grew white, the rolling waves from far,
Like heralds, first denounce the watery war.
This seen, the master soon began to cry:
“Strike, strike the topsail, let the mainsheet fly,
And furl your sails:” the winds repel the sound,
And in the speaker’s mouth the speech is drown’d.
Yet of their own accord, as danger taught
Each in his way, officiously they wrought;
Some stow their oars, or stop the leaky sides;
Another bolder, yet the yard bestrides,
And folds the sails; a fourth with labour laves
The intruding seas, and waves ejects on waves.
In this confusion, while their work they ply,
The winds augment the winter of the sky,
And wage intestine wars, the suffering seas
Are toss’d, and mingled, as their tyrants please.
The master would command, but, in despair
Of safety, stands amazed with stupid care;
Nor what to bid, or what forbid he knows,
The ungovern’d tempest to such fury grows:
Vain is his force, and vainer is his skill,
With such a concourse comes the flood of ill;
The cries of men are mix’d with rattling shrouds,
Seas dash on seas, and clouds encounter clouds;
At once from east to west, from pole to pole,
The forky lightnings flash, the roaring thunders roll.
Now waves on waves ascending scale the skies,
And in the fires above the water fries;
When yellow sands are sifted from below,
The glittering billows give a golden show;
And when the fouler bottom spews the black,
The Stygian die the tainted waters take;
Then frothy white appear the flatted seas,
And change their colour, changing their disease.
Like various fits the Trachin vessel finds;
And now sublime, she rides upon the winds;
As from a lofty summit looks from high,
And from the clouds beholds the nether sky;
Now from the depth of hell they lift their sight,
And at a distance see superior light;
The lashing billows make a loud report,
And beat her sides, as battering rams a fort;
Or as a lion bounding in his way,
With force augmented, bears against his prey,
Sidelong to seize, or unappall’d with fear,
Springs on the toils, and rushes on the spear;
So seas impell’d by winds, with added power
Assault the sides, and o’er the hatches tower.
The planks (their pitchy covering wash’d away)
Now yield, and now a yawning breach display;
The roaring waters with a hostile tide
Rush through the ruins of her gaping side
Meantime in sheets of rain the sky descends,
And ocean swell’d with waters upward tends;
One rising, falling one, the heavens and sea
Meet at their confines, in the middle way:
The sails are drunk with showers, and drop with rain;
Sweet waters mingle with the briny main;
No star appears to lend his friendly light;
Darkness and tempest make a double night;
But flashing fires disclose the deep by turns,
And while the lightnings blaze, the water burns.
Now all the waves their scatter’d force unite,
And, as a soldier foremost in the fight,
Make way for others, and a host alone
Still presses on, and urging gains the town;
So, while the invading billows come abreast,
The hero tenth advanced before the rest,
Sweeps all before him with impetuous sway,
And from the walls descends upon the prey;
Part following enter, part remain without,
With envy hear their fellows’ conquering shout,
And mount on others’ backs, in hopes to share
The city, thus become the seat of war.
A universal cry resounds aloud,
The sailors run in heaps, a helpless crowd;
Art fails, and courage fails, no succour near;
As many waves, as many deaths appear:
One weeps, and yet despairs of late relief;
One cannot weep, his fears congeal his grief,
But, stupid, with dry eyes expects his fate;
One with loud shrieks laments his lost estate,
And calls those happy, whom their funerals wait:
This wretch with prayers and vows the gods implores,
And ev’n the skies he cannot see, adores:
That other, on his friends his thoughts bestows,
His careful father, and his faithful spouse;
The covetous worldling, in his anxious mind,
Thinks only on the wealth he left behind.
All Ceyx his Alcyone employs,
For her he grieves, yet in her absence joys;
His wife he wishes, and would still be near,
Not her with him, but wishes him with her:
Now with last looks he seeks his native shore,
Which fate has destined him to see no more;
He sought, but, in the dark tempestuous night,
He knew not whither to direct his sight;
So whirl the seas, such darkness blinds the sky,
That the black night receives a deeper dye.
The giddy ship ran round, the tempest tore
Her mast, and overboard the rudder bore;
One billow mounts, and with a scornful brow,
Proud of her conquest gain’d, insults the waves below;
Nor lighter falls, than if some giant tore
Pindus and Athos with the freight they bore,
And toss’d on seas, press’d with the ponderous blow,
Down sinks the ship within the abyss below;
Down with the vessel sink into the main
The many, never more to rise again.
Some few on scatter’d planks, with fruitless care,
Lay hold, and swim, but while they swim despair.
Ev’n he who late a sceptre did command,
Now grasps a floating fragment in his hand;
And while he struggles on the stormy main,
Invokes his father, and his wife’s, in vain.
But yet his consort is his greatest care,
Alcyone he names amid his prayer;
Names as a charm against the waves and wind;
Most in his mouth, and ever in his mind.
Tired with his toil, all hopes of safety pass’d,
From pray’rs to wishes he descends at last,
That his dead body, wafted to the sands,
Might have its burial from her friendly hands.
As oft as he can catch a gulp of air,
And peep above the seas, he names
