The nation. This metaphor was used by ancient Greek poets (Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes; Sophocles, Antigone) and numerous others, so that by 1714 Jonathan Swift was writing (Imitations of Horace), “The Metaphor be worn and stale Betwixt a State, and Vessel under Sail.” It nevertheless is still used, although less often today, generally in conjunction with the idea of steering or guiding the ship (i.e., nation) by means of diplomacy or domestic policy. William Safire pointed out that in 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent British Prime Minister Winston Churchill a poem to encourage Britain in the war against Nazi Germany: “Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Building of the Ship,” 1849).