An old man, the survivor of a shipwreck upon an en
chanted island, tells how the sorceress of the isle at
tempted to turn his comrades to swine. Owing to the
youthful strength and nobility of the mariners' spirits
she could only succeed in changing them into horses.
Years later the one man who escaped hears by chance
from a fisherman that his comrades, although still
horses, are alive and young. Desiring to renew his youth
with them, he decides to return to the island. of his
adventures there the poem speaks.