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And Cyclops dreads his father's rage
Where he sits on burning Aetna's crag,
Lest the deathless flames on his roaring forge 585
Be quenched by the overwhelming floods;
When poor Laërtes feels the shock
Of reeling Ithaca, and thinks
That his island realm will be swallowed up:
Then, if the fierce winds die away,
The waves sink back in their quiet depths;
And the sea, which of late the vessels feared, 590
Now far and wide with swelling sails
Is overspread, while tiny skiffs
Skim safely o'er its harmless breast;
And one may count the very fish
Deep down within the peaceful caves,
Where but now, beneath the raping blast,
The battered islands feared the sea. 595
No lot endureth long. For grief
And pleasure, each in turn, depart;
But pleasure has a briefer reign.
From lowest to the highest state
A fleeting hour may bring us. He,
Who wears a crown upon his brow,
To whom the trembling nations kneel, 600
Before whose nod the barbarous Medes
Lay down their arms, the Indians too,
Who dwell beneath the nearer sun,
And Dacians, who the Parthian horse
Are ever threat'ning: he, the king,
With anxious mind the scepter bears,
Foresees and fears the fickle chance 605
And shifting time which soon or late
Shall all his power overthrow.
Ye, whom the ruler of the land
And sea has given o'er subject men
The fearful power of life and death,
Abate your overweening pride.
For whatsoever fear of you 610
Your weaker subjects feel today,