Chapter XVII

He hails the ship--"thou comest"--and feels as if his own whispered prayer for its safety, had been helping to waft it steadily across the sea. In spirit, he had seen it move

"thro' circles of the bounding sky"--

the horizon at sea being always circular (see P. xii., 3)--and he would wish its speedy arrival, inasmuch as it brings "all I love."

For doing this, he invokes a blessing upon all its future voyages. It is now bringing

"The dust of him I shall not see
Till all my widowed race be run."[17]