“But now within a voice-throw of the rocks
The sound of waters did his ears appall.
Full on the coast the great waves’ thunder-shocks
Roll, and afar the wet foam-vapors fall.
No roadstead there, no haven seemed at all,
Nor shelter where a ship might rest at ease;
But from the main-earth darted a wild wall
Of headlands. Then Odysseus’ heart and knees
Were loosened; and his soul thus spake in the deep seas.”
Then follows a fine description of his struggle with the breakers, and how his flesh was torn and his skin peeled against the sharp rocks:—