The sun sets over table bay <br />and that rough sea lies calm <br />and a moon rises full, <br />above the waves <br />and the thundering breakers <br />roar like they did <br />many years before <br /> <br />Odysseus sailed from the island of Ithaca <br />and went to Troy to war <br />where he accompanied the heroes <br />Neoptolemus and Philoctetes and the <br />armour and shield of great Achilles, <br />was his to take <br />and for years he dwelt <br />on stormy seas and in far away lands. <br /> <br />If per chance his ship would stray <br />and reach the cape of storms <br />in another age and time <br />and his eyes could see <br />the beauty of that lovely shore, <br />no other place would <br />his ship sail to <br /> <br />When Bartolomeu Dias set his ships sails <br />and left king John ashore, <br />he was prepared to sail <br />to the ends of the earth <br />and no horrendous sea creature <br />could keep his ships in check. <br /> <br />I wonder what he thought <br />when the fog faded away <br />and table mount sprang into view <br />and table bay lay stretched out <br />up to its shore <br />and when he set his cross <br />did he know that he was marking <br />a great place <br />and when he marked his charts <br />did he wish to come back <br />to that stormy Cape? <br /> <br />When King John gave the name <br />Cabo da Bõa Esperança, <br />did he know that he was naming a place <br />from where a nation would sprout <br />and that it would become a city of hope? <br /> <br />[Reference: =>”Cabo da Bõa Esperança=>Cape of Good Hope”]<br /><br />Gert Strydom<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/table-bay/
