Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 5. ODYSSEUS PUTS TO SEA: WRECK OF THE RAFT, by HOMER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 5. ODYSSEUS PUTS TO SEA: WRECK OF THE RAFT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So spake he, and the clouds at his command
Last Line: And now east wind to west gave up the chase.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical


SO spake he, and the clouds at his command
Gathered, and with the trident in his hand
He stirred the sea and roused the hurricane
Of all the winds, and blotted sea and land

With clouds: night swept across the firmament:
East wind and south, and west athwart them sent,
Clashed, and the crystal-cradled northern blast
Rolling a mighty wave before him went.

Trembled Odysseus then in heart and knee,
And to his mighty spirit inwardly
Grieving he spoke: 'O miserable man!
Is this the end? what shall become of me?

'I fear lest all was true the Goddess said,
How on the deep, ere yet my land I tread,
I must fill up the measure of my woes:
Now to the word is all accomplished.

'With such enveloping clouds the breadth of sky
Zeus covers, and the sea runs mountains high,
And all the hurricanes of all the winds
Burst round me: now as good as dead am I.

'Thrice of our host and four times happy they
Who in wide Troy of old were cast away,
Serving the sons of Atreus! Would to God
I too had died then and fulfilled my day,

'When the bronze spears of Trojans many an one
Struck nigh me round the corpse of Peleus' son!
Then fame and funeral I had earned, nor here
Had perished by this dismal death undone.'

Even as he spoke, a monstrous wave abaft
Came towering up, and crashed into the raft:
And the raft heeled, and off it far he fell,
And from his hand shot out the rudder-shaft.

And in one whirling gust the hurricane
Snapped the mast midway; far into the main
Fell top and rigging: and beneath the surge
He sank, nor for a while his head again

Out of the overwhelming wave could lift:
For now the raiment, bright Calypso's gift,
Weighed heavy on him: but at last he rose,
And with abundant-streaming head made shift

Out of his mouth to spit the salt sea-spray.
Yet withal marking where the wrecked raft lay,
He plunged amid the waves and caught at it,
And crouched amidships, keeping death at bay:

While the raft helpless on the tideway spun,
As down the plain when Autumn is begun,
Before the North wind tufts of thistledown
Entangled close together twirling run;

So him across the sea in furious race
Hither and thither the winds bore apace:
And now south wind to north its plaything tossed,
And now east wind to west gave up the chase.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net