I shall die, shall die like them,

Frail and lone;
Come to me, my lover, come!

Let thy bosom be my tomb:
Come, my own!

THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS
Swept from his fleet upon that fatal night

When great Poseidon's sudden-veering wrath
Scattered the happy homeward-floating Greeks

Like foam-flakes off the waves, the King of Crete
Held lofty commune with the dark Sea-god.

His brows were crowned with victory, his cheeks
Were flushed with triumph, but the mighty joy

Of Troy's destruction and his own great deeds
Passed, for the thoughts of home were dearer now,

And sweet the memory of wife and child,
And weary now the ten long, foreign years,

And terrible the doubt of short delay -
More terrible, O Gods! he cried, but stopped;

Then raised his voice upon the storm and prayed.
O thou, if injured, injured not by me,

Poseidon! whom sea-deities obey
And mortals worship, hear me! for indeed

It was our oath to aid the cause of Greece,
Not unespoused by Gods, and most of all

By thee, if gentle currents, havens calm,
Fair winds and prosperousvoyage, and the Shape

Impersonate in many a perilous hour,
Both in the stately councils of the Kings,

And when the husky battle murmured thick,
May testify of services performed!

But now the seas are haggard with thy wrath,
Thy breath is tempest! never at the shores

Of hostile Ilium did thy stormful brows
Betray such fierce magnificence! not even

On that wild day when, mad with torch and glare,
The frantic crowds with eyes like starving wolves

Burst from their ports impregnable, a stream
Of headlong fury toward the hissing deep;

Where then full-armed I stood in guard, compact
Beside thee, and alone, with brand and spear,

We held at bay the swarming brood, and poured
Blood of choice warriors on the foot-ploughed sands!

Thou, meantime, dark with conflict, as a cloud
That thickens in the bosom of the West

Over quenched sunset, circled round with flame,
Huge as a billowrunning from the winds

Long distances, till with black shipwreck swoln,
It flings its angry mane about the sky.

And like that billow heaving ere it burst;
And like that cloud urged by impulsive storm

With charge of thunder, lightning, and the drench
Of torrents, thou in all thy majesty

Of mightiness didst fall upon the war!
Remember that great moment! Nor forget

The aid I gave thee; how my ready spear
Flew swiftly seconding thy mortal stroke,

Where'er the press was hottest; never slacked
My arm its duty, nor mine eye its aim,

Though terribly they compassed us, and stood
Thick as an Autumn forest, whose brown hair,

Lustrous with sunlight, by the still increase
Of heat to glowing heat conceives like zeal

Of radiance, till at the pitch of noon
'Tis seized with conflagration and distends

Horridly over leagues of doom'd domain;
Mingling the screams of birds, the cries of brutes,

The wail of creatures in the covert pent,
Howls, yells, and shrieks of agony, the hiss

Of seething sap, and crash of falling boughs
Together in its dull voracious roar.

So closely and so fearfully they throng'd,
Savage with phantasies of victory,

A sea of dusky shapes; for day had passed
And night fell on their darkened faces, red

With fight and torchflare; shrill the resonant air
With eager shouts, and hoarse with angry groans;

While over all the dense and sullen boom,
The din and murmur of the myriads,

Rolled with its awful intervals, as though
The battle breathed, or as against the shore

Waves gather back to heave themselves anew.
That night sleep dropped not from the dreary skies,

Nor could the prowess of our chiefs oppose
That sea of raging men. But what were they?

Or what is man opposed to thee? Its hopes
Are wrecks, himself the drowning, drifting weed

That wanders on thy waters; such as I
Who see the scattered remnants of my fleet,

Remembering the day when first we sailed,
Each glad ship shining like the morning star

With promise for the world. Oh! such as I
Thus darkly drifting on the drowning waves.

O God of waters! 'tis a dreadful thing
To suffer for an evil unrevealed;

Dreadful it is to hear the perishing cry
Of those we love; the silence that succeeds

How dreadful! Still my trust is fixed on thee
For those that still remain and for myself.

And if I hear thy swift foam-snorting steeds
Drawing thy dusky chariot, as in

The pauses of the wind I seem to hear,
Deaf thou art not to my entreating prayer!

Haste then to give us help, for closely now
Crete whispers in my ears, and all my blood

Runs keen and warm for home, and I have yearning,
Such yearning as I never felt before,

To see again my wife, my little son,
My Queen, my pretty nursling of five years,

The darling of my hopes, our dearest pledge
Of marriage, and our brightest prize of love,

Whose parting cry rings clearest in my heart.
O lay this horror, much-offended God!

And making all as fair and firm as when
We trusted to thy mighty depths of old, -

I vow to sacrifice the first whom Zeus
Shall prompt to hail us from the white seashore

And welcome our return to royal Crete,
An offering, Poseidon, unto thee!

Amid the din of elemental strife,
No voice may pierce but Deity supreme:

And Deity supreme alone can hear,
Above the hurricane's discordant shrieks,

The cry of agonized humanity.
Not unappeased was He who smites the waves,

When to his stormy ears the warrior's vow
Entered, and from his foamy pinnacle

Tumultuous he beheld the prostrate form,
And knew the mighty heart. Awhile he gazed,

As doubtful of his purpose, and the storm,