Goodisson, William: A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfu, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Zante: with remarks upon the character manners and customs of the Ionian Greeks : descriptions of the scenery and remains of antiquity discovered therein, and reflections upon the Cyclopian ruins, illustrated by maps and sketches (London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1822)

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The magnificent port that opens to receive him
upon the east coast, and by which the island is so
deeply indented as to be nearly divided into two,
conveys at once an emotion of surprise and delight.
If he have the good fortune to arrive while the water
in the outer channel is agitated, and have an anti-
pathy to the tossing of a vessel in a rolling sea, the
truth and the beauty of Homer’s description will be
at once acknowledged by him with particular plea-
sure and satisfaction*.

* Od. b. xiii. line 93 to 115; of which passage, the introduction
here of Pope’s translation can require no apology.—
Now plac’d in order, the Phoeacian train,
Their cables loose, and launch into the main:
At once they bend, and strike their equal oars,
And leave the sinking hills and lessening shores
While on the deck the chief in silence lies,
And pleasing slumbers steal upon his eyes.
As fiery coursers in the rapid race,
Urg’d by fierce drivers through the dusty space,
Toss their high heads, and scour along the plain,
So mounts the bounding vessel o’er the main.
Back to the stem the parted billows flow,
And the black ocean foams and roars below.
Thus with spread sails the winged galley flies,
Less swift an eagle cuts the liquid skies;
Divine Ulysses was her sacred load,
A man, in wisdom equal to a God!
Much danger, long and mighty toils he bore,
In storms by sea, and combats on the shore :
All which soft sleep now banish’d from his breast,
Wrapt in a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest.
I