Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

George Chapman (1559?–1634)

The Song the Sirens Sung (from Odyssey XII)

‘COME here, thou worthy of a world of praise,

That dost so high the Grecian glory raise;

Ulysses! stay thy ship, and that song hear

That none pass’d ever but it bent his ear,

But left him ravish’d, and instructed more

By us, than any ever heard before.

For we know all things whatsoever were

In wide Troy labour’d; whatsoever there

The Grecians and the Trojans both sustain’d

By those high issues that the Gods ordain’d.

And whatsoever all the earth can show

T’ inform a knowledge of desert, we know.’