Smoke in the Woods

17“ ‘Give ear, my friends, amid your sufferings,
To words that I shall say. We cannot here
Know which way lies the west, nor where the east,
Nor where the sun, that shines for all mankind,
Descends below the earth, nor where again
He rises from it. Yet will we consult,
If room there be for counsel —which I doubt,
For when I climbed that height I overlooked
An isle surrounded by the boundless deep —
An isle low lying. In the midst I saw
Smoke rising from a thicket of the wood.’

18“I spoke; their courage died within their hearts
As they remembered what Antiphates,
The Laestrigon, had done, and what foul deeds
The cannibal Cyclops, and they wept aloud.
Tears flowed abundantly, but tears were now
Of no avail to our unhappy band.