That fateful night,
             tending to my firelight,
             poking and prodding the rising flame,
             I heard a strange voice call my name.
             Milking my livestock since dawn that day,
             I had not expected a visitor today,
             especially a seafaring human who
             had been blown away, along with his crew,
             and I heard, my stomach mumbling... "eat them all",
             from within me come a great rumbling.
             The leader, unnamed, stepped up before me,
             said 'we were blown off course on the Great South Sea,'
             told me the gods demanded of me
             that I give him gifts-to show courtesy,
             and I, offended, refused.
             'You are a ninny!*'
             I told the man, so small and skinny,
             and hungering already for their flesh,
             'twas hard to keep from devouring this unwanted guest.
             'I tell you, pompous one, we Cyclopes,
             take orders from no one, not Zeus nor Ares,
             nor great Hephaestus, nor fearsome Deimos,
             so what makes you think you, no matter how famous
             or great, have a right to order me?'
             My hunger masked,
             I calmed and casually I asked
             where the ship of these men might be,
             not knowing yet that I would be deceived.
             It sank,
             the stranger told me, on the bank
             of my island. Disappointed, I grunted,
             for it seemed he had no more ship to be hunted,
             no more of his crew to fix for a meal,
             and no loot that I could steal.
             So I picked up a few members of his crew
             and, just to show contempt, I didn't boil them in stew,
             but rather ate them all alive-
             their captain's look was horrified!
             'That'll teach him,' I thought to myself.
             Hard-hearted
             was this captain, though, as the next day he started
             up toward me once more. He said he had a gift for me,
             and, sure that I'd frightened him, I was pleased.
             His men broug...