The Sirens and Ulysses The Sirens and Ulysses The Sirens and Ulysses is a large oil painting on canvas by the English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1837. It depicts the scene from Homer's "Odyssey" in which Ulysses (Odysseus) resists the bewitching song of the Sirens by having his ship's crew tie him up, while they are ordered to block their own ears to prevent themselves from hearing the song. While traditionally the Sirens had been depicted as human–animal chimeras, Etty portrayed them as naked young women, on an island strewn with decaying corpses. The painting divided opinion at the time of its
Poems of the Past and the Present some of the collection's poems Aeschylean, and Hardy himself considered that the 'Doom' themes in the work overlapped with those in "The Dynasts". However, he had been careful in the collection's Preface to disclaim any organised philosophy therein, adding that "Unadjusted impressions have their value..." Among other notable pieces were his poem 'Well-beloved', on the transient succession of a man's love-ideal; and "The Darkling Thrush", the humorous piece "The Ruined Maid", and the dour sequence "In Tenebris". Poems of the Past and the Present Poems of the Past and the Present is the second collection of poems by English poet