The stallion, shaker of the earth,
Who brought the Cyclops to the birth,
Whose rage was famed in history,
Who drowned great Ajax in the sea;
Poseidon, brother of the king,
Whose trident strike brings forth a spring;
If he but shake his mighty head,
He gluts the seas with sailors dead;
Their ships are dashed; they’re cast ashore,
Or sink below: they’re seen no more.
He rends the earth to swallow those,
Whose hubris made them to suppose
That they, but men, could so defy
The god whose brother rules the sky;
If he should find with men a fault,
He fills their streams and springs with salt.
For those he loves, he calms the seas,
And sends a gentle, guiding breeze;
Their wells give water clean and pure,
By this their lives are made secure.
His horses’ hooves like thunder sound,
In rhythmic echoes they resound.
The king of earth Poseidon is,
The lands, the oceans, all are his.