Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DARING OF MAN, by ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DARING OF MAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O vessel bearing virgil greeceward now,
Last Line: For our audacity thus perish, all?
Subject(s): Helen Of Troy; Hercules; Humanity; Mythology - Classical; Prometheus; Troy; Virgil (70-19 B.c.); Vergil


O Vessel bearing Virgil Greeceward now,
May Cyprian Venus, Lady of the Sea,
And Helen's starry brothers guide thy prow --
May no wind but the west wind blow on thee!

Thou owest Virgil to the Attic shore!
He was but lent to thee, that prince of men,
Who is the half of my own heart -- and more --
O bring him safe back to the land again!

I marvel at the hardihood of man!
A heart of oak, thrice bound with brass had he
Who first before the angry billows ran,
In his frail bark, upon an untried sea.

In teeth of fierce contending waves -- unheeding
If they blew North or South or East or West;
If they were fair or foul, he still went speeding,
His daring spirit eager for the quest.

Naught could deter him who adventuring roved!
On turbid seas, on monsters of the deep,
He looked with dry, undaunted eyes -- unmoved --
And on Ceraunian, ill-famed and steep!

In vain for all-wise Jove to put the sea
Between far lands and haply thus divide them,
If man, in fearless barks, dares impiously
To cross and conquer oceans and deride them.

Thus daring did Prometheus bring down fire
From heaven to men -- the fire that brought no blessing
To earth with it, but rather, fevers dire
To haste the feet of Death, already pressing.

So Daedalus dared, too, forbidden things --
For it was not intended man should fly! --
When, mounting Heaven itself on waxen wings,
He soared the ether of the far, blue sky!

And in that task which he was bent upon
So, hammering at Hell's gate, Hercules
Burst through the barriers of Acheron --
Is aught past human daring -- after these?

Shall patient Jove spare such impiety
For long? Will he not let his lightnings fall
In some dread day of doom? Oh, shall not we
For our audacity thus perish, all?





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