Odysseus' Fate
Through horrors of land and horrors of sea
Bereft and wandering, Odysseus,
God-fearing wretch, sought Ithaca;
Unfaltering, he plunged into the gloom of Hades;
The roar of fierce Charybdis and underwater Scylla's groans
Shook not his noble soul.
His patience vanquished cruel fate, it seemed,
And to the dregs he'd drunk the bitter cup.
It seemed the heav'ns were done with testing him
And drove him softly, slumbering,
To homeland's longed-for cliffs.
He waked: what then? He did not know his home.
poem by Konstantin Nikolaevich Batiushkov

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Related quotes
Odysseus
Seeking to find his home, Odysseus crosses each water;
Through Charybdis so dread; ay, and through Scylla's wild yells,
Through the alarms of the raging sea, the alarms of the land too,--
E'en to the kingdom of hell leads him his wandering course.
And at length, as he sleeps, to Ithaca's coast fate conducts him;
There he awakes, and, with grief, knows not his fatherland now.
poem by Friedrich Schiller

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I Am Proud To Say
the horrors
of life, we were
there to confront
all the horrors
of life,
at first it was
a struggle to be
free
and then it is not
anymore
it has become
a lifestyle
and so we get
used to all
these horrors
and they are not
horrors anymore
they become
facts that we
face everyday
without anymore
the fear
these everyday
every minute
we conquer them
with nothing
but a blank face
this numbness
that chews
what seemingly
is horrible
at first but now
they have become
us.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Shellshock
The horrors in store when men go to war,
Will break the fragile hearts of men.
When those men come home to kiss and hug their wives and kids,
They won't be the same.
Their eyes have seen the death and distruction that war leaves in it's path, these men will never be the same.
They are shellshocked,
Forced to repeat those horrors again and again.
They are shellshocked,
War tears out the hearts of men.
Johnathan came home from Iraq,
He has a wife and two kids.
The horrors were haunting his mind,
back in the kitchen his wife dropped a pan.
He's now doing 5-10 in a 8x10,
All for the Iraq war.
He is shellshocked,
He is paying for his country pride.
He is shellshocked,
War tore the heart out of that man.
poem by J.D. Decker

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Bloody Eyes (Sonnet)
Deep in the darkness horrors lurk
Horrors of a homophobic racist jerk
Horrors of a life destroyed by family
Horrors of person who wanders idly
In the darkness there is no hope
For he has wrapped his neck with that rope
He is prejudice and mean to others
But to me he is like my only brother
I love that jerk to pieces, he can be so kind
I love his bravery, his intuitive mind
But in his darkness I see such pain
He thinks in life there is nothing to gain
My wonderfully horrible cousin doesn’t cry
Instead I see a trickle of blood in his eye
poem by Lenore Lee

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Colic Spirits
Horrors of horrors,
this deity be ill.
Rape of a virgin
and a heart frozen still.
Pinioned objections
drown her in lust.
Colic spirits
lost in the dusk.
poem by Johann Graham

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The Iliad Odyssey: The Summary Of A Man
Odysseus indeed in spoils of war
with cunning brave heart, cleverly won,
many a fair desirable noble women
while his wife loyally waited, on Ithaca,
for warrior hero's fleet bloodied blade
in the hand of a Hellene king in duress,
foremost ever in corpse reaping battle
renowned for guile deceit resourcefulness,
will storm many fortified rampart hearts
enchant many fair young, innocent maids,
before finally ends an epic tragic Odyssey
decade upon a decade in event, laden journey,
for renown upon renown in famed Trojan War
an epic travails in trials score upon score
as virile Odysseus tries to spoils laden return fara
reassert his place as rightful king of Ithaca.
poem by Terence George Craddock

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Sonnet LXVII: On Passing over a Dreary Tract
Swift fleet the billowy clouds along the sky,
Earth seems to shudder at the storm aghast;
While only beings as forlorn as I,
Court the chill horrors of the howling blast.
Even round yon crumbling walls, in search of food,
The ravenous Owl foregoes his evening flight,
And in his cave, within the deepest wood,
The Fox eludes the tempest of the night.
But to my heart congenial is the gloom
Which hides me from a World I wish to shun;
That scene where Ruin saps the mouldering tomb,
Suits with the sadness of a wretch undone.
Nor is the deepest shade, the keenest air,
Black as my fate, or cold as my despair.
poem by Charlotte Smith

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Gardens Of Tears
I have watched them
stroll from their native land
with sack cloths around their waists
holding tools of despair
on the shoulders of their fate
i heard them gating
leaving the snow land
to lay camp in the fields so wet
dragging their horrors along
onto the plains of their pain
Black or white;
humanity is stuck
here in the gardens of tears
Africa is a cell, the world a hell
with flames of cancer, the chains of fate
poem by Timothy muggaga

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The petitioner's problem is to avoid Scylla without being drawn into Charybdis.
quote by Robert Jackson

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Who Else Can I Blame For My Horrors?
Who else can I blame for my horrors?
Willing victims are growing slim.
My ability to hide insecurities,
Is wearing thin.
I used this to my advantage...
Now it seems as if this tactic,
Has a need to come to an end.
Who else can I blame for my horrors?
Willing victims are growing slim.
My ability to hide insecurities,
Is wearing thin.
And a dime spent,
No one can afford to lend.
How can I keep on pretending,
It is money and not religion...
That makes me 'tick' and my world 'spin'.
Who else can I blame for my horrors?
And from where and whom did I get,
This insight I have inside of me I regret...
Beginning in a free fall,
To see it come to an ending I alone seem to let...
Happen!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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To A Lady On Her Remarkable Preservation In A Hurrican In North-Carolina
THOUGH thou did'st hear the tempest from afar,
And felt'st the horrors of the wat'ry war,
To me unknown, yet on this peaceful shore
Methinks I hear the storm tumultuous roar,
And how stern Boreas with impetuous hand
Compell'd the Nereids to usurp the land.
Reluctant rose the daughters of the main,
And slow ascending glided o'er the plain,
Till AEolus in his rapid chariot drove
In gloomy grandeur from the vault above:
Furious he comes. His winged sons obey
Their frantic sire, and madden all the sea.
The billows rave, the wind's fierce tyrant roars,
And with his thund'ring terrors shakes the shores:
Broken by waves the vessel's frame is rent,
And strows with planks the wat'ry element.
But thee, Maria, a kind Nereid's shield
Preserv'd from sinking, and thy form upheld:
And sure some heav'nly oracle design'd
At that dread crisis to instruct thy mind
Things of eternal consequence to weigh,
And to thine heart just feelings to convey
Of things above, and of the future doom,
And what the births of the dread world to come.
From tossing seas I welcome thee to land.
"Resign her, Nereid," 'twas thy God's command.
Thy spouse late buried, as thy fears conceiv'd,
Again returns, thy fears are all reliev'd:
Thy daughter blooming with superior grace
Again thou see'st, again thine arms embrace;
O come, and joyful show thy spouse his heir,
And what the blessings of maternal care!
poem by Phillis Wheatley

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My Home Town
My home town
The place where I was born,
where I learned of love
And was taught of truth
And where my thoughts were formed
In my home town.
My home town
How highly you do you rate
Where united we stand
And divided we fall
When our nation calls,
In my home state
My great state.
My homeland
Majestically do you stand
With your mountains so near
And your people so dear
Ready to listen and hear
In our homeland
Our grand land.
My homeland
Kentucky at its grace
The land I have known
Where my thoughts have grown,
In my bluegrass home
My own sweet home
Our own Kentucky home.
Randy L. McClave
poem by Randy McClave

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You Only Tell Me You Love Me When Youre Drunk
What a performance tonight
Should I react or turn off the light
Looks like youre picking a fight
In a blurring of wrong and right
But how your mood chances
Youre a devil, now an angel
Suddenly subtle and solemn
And silent as a monk
You only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
Its better than nothing I suppose
Some doors have openend
Others closed
But I couldnt see you exposes
To the horrors behind some of those
Somebody said listen dont you know
What youre missing
You should be kissing him instead of
Dissing him like a punk
But you only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
You only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
All of my friends
Keep asking me why, oh why
Do you not say goodbye
If you dont even try youll be sunk
cause you only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
Whats the meaning
When you speak with so much feeling
Is it over when youre sober
Is it junk
You only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
You only tell me you love me
When youre drunk
song performed by by Pet Shop Boys

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There Are Those Who Have Known Daily Horrors
THERE ARE THOSE WHO HAVE KNOWN DAILY HORRORS
I have had a relatively easy life-
There are those who have known daily horrors
Beyond those any human being should ever have to imagine
I think of the last generation of survivors of the Shoah
Slowly dying out now
Taking with them their memories of loved ones murdered before their eyes
Of incredible tortures and cruelty
Of horrible partings and endless humiliations-
I think of these people my fellow Jews
And wonder why God allowed it to happen to them
And what it all means-
I certainly don't know-
I have had a relatively easy life
With of course my own griefs and sorrows and failings
But nothing at all like what they went through -
Oh God what is this whole thing about anyway?
And why did You let the Nazi Germans and their Austrian Polish Lithuanian Slovak Romanian Hungarian Dutch French helpers
Do it to them?
Why families with tens of members murdered
Why the children?
The incredible cruelties and humiliations and horrors
Why?
poem by Shalom Freedman

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Young Ned Of The Hill
Have you ever walked the lonesome hills
And heard the curlews cry
Or seen the raven black as night
Upon a windswept sky
To walk the purple heather
And hear the westwind cry
To know that's where the rapparee must die
Since cromwell pushed us westward
To live our lowly lives
There's some of us have deemed to fight
From tipperary mountains high
Noble men with wills of iron
Who are not afraid to die
Who'll fight with gaelic honour held on high
A curse upon you oliver cromwell
You who raped our motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"to hell or connaught" may you burn in hell tonight
Of one such man i'd like to speak
A rapparee by name and deed
His family dispossessed and slaughtered
They put a price upon his head
His name is known in song and story
His deeds are legends still
And murdered for blood money
Was young ned of the hill
A curse upon you oliver cromwell
You who raped our motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"to hell or connaught" may you burn in hell tonight
You have robbed our homes and fortunes
Even drove us from our land
You tried to break our spirit
But you'll never understand
The love of dear old ireland
That will forge an iron will
As long as there are gallant men
Like young ned of the hill
song performed by by Pogues

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet LXX: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic
Is there a solitary wretch who hies
To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow,
And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes
Its distance from the waves that chide below;
Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs
Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,
With hoarse, half-utter'd lamentation, lies
Murmuring responses to the dashing surf?
In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,
I see him more with envy than with fear;
He has no nice felicities that shrink
From giant horrors; wildly wandering here,
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or the duration of his woe.
poem by Charlotte Smith

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Alankar (Decor) -9
Soul Release
'Oh no, oh no, hey no, hey not you cry
O' my dear heart what gain gain you crying
What gain regained hollering and you try
Pain clutched you clutch patience till me flying
And me His child as I rest in His hand
You fill their hunt of fleshy need and thirst
Erst vow, again a sheep be not on land
As I to Him so pray no slay thrust first'
In haste the heart the sheep's on men mutters
'And you my soul shall plead for no altar
As me so laid butchered fixed by cutters'
But Hades bitters 'no soul shall taste nectar'
Oh Lord done can be what? to Hades his taste
To sheep their weep, to men their sin life waste?
poem by Indira Renganathan

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Odysseus: In Memory Of Arthur Griffith
You had the prose of logic and of scorn,
And words to sledge an iron argument,
And yet you could draw down the outland birds
To perch beside the ravens of your thought
The dreams whereby a people challenges
Its dooms, its bounds. You were the one who knew
What sacred resistance is in men
That are almost broken; how, from resistance used,
A strength is born, a stormy, bright-eyed strength
Like Homer's Iris, messenger of the gods,
Coming before the ships the enemy
Has flung the fire upon. Our own, our native strength
You mustered up. But I will never say this,
Walking beside you, or looking on you,
With your strong brow, and chin was like a targe,
And eyes that were so kindly of us all.
And sorrow comes as on that August day,
With our ship cleaving through the seas for home,
And that news coming sparkling through the air,
That you were dead, and that we'd never see you
Looking upon the state that you had builded.
The news that came was like that weight of waters
Poured on our hopes! Our navies yet unbuilded,
Our city left inglorious on its site,
Our fields uncleared, and over
Our ancient house the ancient curse of war!
And could we pray, touching the island-homeland,
Other than this: 'Odysseus, you who laboured
So long upon the barren outer sea;
Odysseus, Odysseus, you who made
The plan that drove the wasters from the house,
And bent the bow that none could bend but you:
Be with us still:
Your memory be the watcher in our house,
Your memory be the flame upon our hills.
poem by Padraic Colum

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The Dirge
Deserted of her Spouse, she sat lamenting in the chamber.
Hast thou gone and left me,
Void of faults but strictly true?
Fly far away
Without delay,
Adieu, my love, adieu.
Hast thou gone and left me,
Hence to seek another bride?
I must be still,
Thou hast thy will,
The world is free and wide.
Only hadst thou told me
Ere I drunk the bitter cup,
I could with shame,
Now bear the blame,
And freely give thee up.
But I'm left to ponder,
Now in the depth of sorrow's gloom;
Like some dull sprite,
In dead of night,
Bewailing o'er her tomb.
Swiftly fly and welcome;
It is the fate of fools to rove;
With whom I know
Wedlock is woe
Without the stream of love.
Where constant love is wanting,
Pleasure has not long to dwell;
I view my fate,
Alas, too late!
So partner, fare thee well.
But, my love, remember,
Hence we meet and face to face,
Thy heart shall ache,
Thy soul shall quake,
The wretch of all disgrace.
poem by George Moses Horton

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