What false sanctuaries

Do you keep

On that smitten rock

You shall not prosper

In your deceit.

 

I felt the texture

Of the waves

But did not fear

For the gods shown will

Did not claim me.

 

Who doth hear

Your idle boasts

But the dead of the sea

The rock will shatter

Your refuge gone.

 

I am cast upon this wretched arc

My rock is of many pieces

But it rescues me once more

And no tempest

Shall cease my secluded breath.

 

 

 

Ajax son of Oileus boasted that he had escaped from the storm
against the will of the gods. Poseidon his rescuer shattered the rock
on which he found refuge and he drowned.