The Storm - Alcæus of Mytilene

Now here, now there, the wild waves sweep,

Whilst we, betwixt them o'er the deep,

In shatter'd tempest-beaten bark,

With laboring ropes are onward driven,

The billows dashing o'er our dark

Upheavèd deck—in tatters riven

Our sail—whose yawning rents between

The raging sea and sky are seen.

Loose from their hold our anchors burst,

And then the third, the fatal wave

Comes rolling onward like the first,

And doubles all our toil to save.

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Alcæus of Mytilene (c. 620–c. 580 B.C.) Greece

Translated by Sir William Jones

Source: Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1, Editor: Charles Dudley Warner, 1887 [Project Gutenberg]