ULYSSES: 
Vulcan, Aetnean king! burn out with fire
The shining eye of this thy neighbouring monster! 
And thou, O Sleep, nursling of gloomy Night, 605
Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast,
And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,
Returning from their famous Trojan toils,
To perish by this man, who cares not either
For God or mortal; or I needs must think 610
That Chance is a supreme divinity,
And things divine are subject to her power.

NOTE: 
606 God-hated 1824; God-hating (as an alternative) B.

CHORUS: 
Soon a crab the throat will seize
Of him who feeds upon his guest,
Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes 615
In revenge of such a feast! 
A great oak stump now is lying
In the ashes yet undying. 
Come, Maron, come! 
Raging let him fix the doom, 620
Let him tear the eyelid up
Of the Cyclops—­that his cup
May be evil! 
Oh!  I long to dance and revel
With sweet Bromian, long desired, 625
In loved ivy wreaths attired;
Leaving this abandoned home—­
Will the moment ever come?

ULYSSES: 
Be silent, ye wild things!  Nay, hold your peace,
And keep your lips quite close; dare not to breathe, 630
Or spit, or e’en wink, lest ye wake the monster,
Until his eye be tortured out with fire.

CHORUS: 
Nay, we are silent, and we chaw the air.

ULYSSES: 
Come now, and lend a hand to the great stake
Within—­it is delightfully red hot. 635

CHORUS: 
You then command who first should seize the stake
To burn the Cyclops’ eye, that all may share
In the great enterprise.

SEMICHORUS 1: 
We are too far;
We cannot at this distance from the door
Thrust fire into his eye.

SEMICHORUS 2: 
And we just now 640
Have become lame! cannot move hand or foot.

CHORUS: 
The same thing has occurred to us,—­our ankles
Are sprained with standing here, I know not how.

ULYSSES: 
What, sprained with standing still?

CHORUS: 
And there is dust
Or ashes in our eyes, I know not whence. 645

ULYSSES: 
Cowardly dogs! ye will not aid me then?

CHORUS: 
With pitying my own back and my back-bone,
And with not wishing all my teeth knocked out,
This cowardice comes of itself—­but stay,
I know a famous Orphic incantation 650
To make the brand stick of its own accord
Into the skull of this one-eyed son of Earth.

ULYSSES: 
Of old I knew ye thus by nature; now
I know ye better.—­I will use the aid
Of my own comrades.  Yet though weak of hand 655
Speak cheerfully, that so ye may awaken
The courage of my friends with your blithe words.