Alas! I tremble lest some God design
T' ensnare me yet, bidding me quit the raft.
But let me well beware how I obey 430
Too soon that precept, for I saw the land
Of my foretold deliv'rance far remote.
Thus, therefore, will I do, for such appears
My wiser course. So long as yet the planks
Mutual adhere, continuing on board 435
My raft, I will endure whatever woes,
But when the waves shall shatter it, I will swim,
My sole resource then left. While thus he mused,
Neptune a billow of enormous bulk
Hollow'd into an overwhelming arch 440
On high up-heaving, smote him. As the wind
Tempestuous, falling on some stubble-heap,
The arid straws dissipates ev'ry way,
So flew the timbers. He, a single beam
Bestriding, oar'd it onward with his feet, 445
As he had urged an horse. His raiment, then,
Gift of Calypso, putting off, he bound
His girdle on, and prone into the sea
With wide-spread palms prepar'd for swimming, fell.
Shore-shaker Neptune noted him; he shook 450
His awful brows, and in his heart he said,
Thus, suff'ring many mis'ries roam the flood,
Till thou shalt mingle with a race of men
Heav'n's special favourites; yet even there
Fear not that thou shalt feel thy sorrows light. 455
He
