Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RETURN FROM TROY, by QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RETURN FROM TROY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Gone was all hope of life. The night was dark
Last Line: Seemed caught together in a single whole.
Alternate Author Name(s): Quintus Of Smyrna; Kointos Smyrnaios
Subject(s): Troy


GONE was all hope of life. The night was dark,
Heavy the storm; and dreadful the gods' wrath
Arose. Poseidon stirred the brute sea-waves
To please his brother's noble child, who now
Ravened insatiably on high, and stormed
Among the lightnings. Gladly Zeus, her sire,
With honourable thunder shook the skies,
Till isle and continent were drenched with sea
Towards Euboea, where to most effect
The goddess used her latest cruelties
To plague the Argives yet. Their fleet was loud
With cries and groaning and continual crash
Of stoven vessels, one upon other driven,
And all was pain and labour and despair.
Some strained with oars, pushing to keep away
The imminent collision. Oars and all
The deep gulph took them, piteously fallen
And done to death between the long ship-beams
That tossed this way and that, crushing their limbs
With hideous grinding. Some were felled aboard
And lay like dead men. Others, forced to swim,
Fell down a-straddle on the smooth-planed oars,
Or rode upon the wreckage. Still the sea
Roared from its depth, till water, sky, and land
Seemed caught together in a single whole.





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