We quit this other home, And leaving here a handful on the shore, Spread sail and scour with hollow keel the foam.
The fleet was on mid ocean; land no more Was visible, naught else above, before But sky and sea, when overhead did loom A storm-cloud, black as heaven itself, that bore Dark night and wintry tempest in its womb, And all the waves grew rough and shuddered with the gloom.
XXVII.

"Winds roll the waters, and the great seas rise.
Dispersed we welter on the gulfs.

Damp night Has snatched with rain the heaven from our eyes, And storm-mists in a mantle wrapt the light.
Flash after flash, and for a moment bright, Quick lightnings rend the welkin.

Driven astray We wander, robbed of reckoning, reft of sight.
No difference now between the night and day E'en Palinurus sees, nor recollects the way.
XXVIII.

"Three days, made doubtful by the blinding gloom, As many nights, when not a star is seen, We wander on, uncertain of our doom.
At last the fourth glad daybreak clears the scene, And rising land, and opening uplands green, And rolling smoke at distance greet the view.
No longer tarrying; to our oars we lean.
Down drop the sails; in order ranged, each crew Flings up the foam to heaven, and sweeps the sparkling blue.
XXIX.