[lbo-talk] Looking for a sailing poem

mjs at smithbowen.net mjs at smithbowen.net
Tue Oct 15 11:14:29 PDT 2013



> Yes and no. There's novels and epics, but no poetry.

Epics aren't poetry? And which ones are about sailing -- are you thinking of the Odyssey? I'd've said that was more of a road movie that happens to take place on water.

The sailing is incidental, and we don't hear much about it.

Though come to think of it, Virgil is good on sailing, if only in spots, e.g. Book VII:

At pius exsequiis Aeneas rite solutis, aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt aequora, tendit iter velis portumque relinquit. Adspirant aurae in noctem nec candida cursus Luna negat, splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus. Proxima Circaeae raduntur litora terrae, dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos adsiduo resonat cantu tectisque superbis urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum, arguto tenuis percurrens pectine telas. Hinc exaudiri gemitus iraeque leonum vincla recusantum et sera sub nocte rudentum, saetigerique sues atque in praesaepibus ursi saevire ac formae magnorum ululare luporum, quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis induerat Circe in voltus ac terga ferarum. Quae ne monstra pii paterentur talia Troes delati in portus neu litora dira subirent, Neptunus ventis implevit vela secundis atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.

'Raduntur litora' is particularly apt, I think, having scraped a few coasts myself. And 'splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus' is a line that comes to mind every time I'm on the water by moonlight.

By the way, I looked at the site Jordan pointed out. Shocking, innit, that none of us thought of Ancient Mariner?



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