Crash on crash of the sea, straining
to wreck men, sea-boards, continents, raging against
the world, furious, stay at last, for against
your fury and your mad fight, the line of
heroes stands, god-like:
Akroneos, Oknolos, Elatreus, helm-of-boat,
loosener-of-helm, dweller-by-sea, Nauteus, sea-man,
Prumneos, stern-of-ship, Agchialos, sea-girt,
Elatreus, oar-shaft: lover-of-the-sea,
lover-of-the-sea-ebb, lover-of-the-swift-sea,
Ponteus, Proreus, Ooos: Anabesneos,
one caught between wave-shock and wave-shock:
Eurualos, broad sea-wrack, like Ares, man’s
death, and Naubolides, best in shape, of
all first in size: Phaekous, seas’
thunderbolt ah, crash on crash of
great names man-tamer, man’s-help,
perfect Laodamos: and last the sons of great
Alkinoos, Laodamos, Halios and god-like Clytomeos.
Of all nations, of all cities, of
all continents, she is favoured among the rest,
for she gives men as great as the sea, valorous
to the fight, to battle against the elements and
evil: greater even than the sea, they
live beyond wrack and death of cities, and each
god-like name spoken is as a shrine in a godless
place.
But to name you, we reverent are
breathless, weak with pain and old loss, and
exile and despair our hearts break
but to speak your name, Oknaleos
and may we but call you in the feverish wrack
of our storm-strewn beach, Eretmeos, and our
hurt is quiet and our hearts tamed, as the sea
may yet be tamed, and we vow to float great ships,
named for each hero, and oar-blades, cut out
of mountain-trees as such men might have shaped:
Eretmeos and the sea is swept, baffled by
the lordly shape, Akroneos has pines for his ship’s
keel; to love, to mate the sea? Ah there
is Ponteos, the very deeps roar, hailing
you dear they clamour to Ponteos,
and to Proeos leap, swift to kiss, to curl,
to creep, lover to mistress.
What wave, what love, what foam, for
Ooos who moves swift as the sea? Ah stay,
my heart, the weight of lovers, of loneliness
drowns me, alas that their very names so
press to break my heart with heart-sick weariness,
what would they be, the very gods, rearing
their mighty length beside the unharvested sea?