Three Songs to Odysseus

Thus spake Circe of the amber tresses;
Wingéd words she spake,
she of the sea-deep eyes:

"Welcome, welcome within my shining portals,
To my cool halls and to my flowing wine;
Soft lyre-swept airs, the odes of the immortals,
Nectar, ambrosia, and love shall all be thine!

"Thou shalt forget thy wanderings, thy sorrows;
Thou shalt forget thine agonies, thy fears;
All yesterdays shall die and all tomorrows
Grant thy desires and dry thy bitter tears.

"Welcome, welcome within my shining portals;
Rest thee and quaff the golden chaliced wine!" 

Calypso, awful goddess, thus implored:

"Leave not, O love, this sea-encircled isle;
Leave not this grotto which our love has known,
The cypressed vales where Zephyrus awhile
Blows from the river reeds love's dulcet tone.

"Am I not fairer, I a goddess born,
Than mortal dame, however fair she be?
Am I not mighty, shall I bear thy scorn
Or yield thy lips to fond Penelope
Who spins her foolish web in Ithaca, forlorn
And weeping for the love of thee?

"Leave not, O love, this garden of our bliss!
I bind thee with a spell, my love, my kiss!" 

White-armed Nausicaä sighed
Beside the misty deep:

"Thou wouldst not stay, thou goodly stranger,
The dark abyss hath borne thee far.
And, oh, my heart aches fearing thee in danger
Where lost horizons are.

"Here where we met I come at even,
One word from ocean's deep to crave.
I hear a seabird's cry from the wide heaven!
The sob of lonely wave!"