Question

What is this saying "The torrent roar'd and we did buffet it with lusty sinews throwing it aside and stemming it with hearts and controversy but ere we could arrive the point proposed ceased cried help me Cassius or I sink

Answer 1

"The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'"

Context: Cassius is talking to Brutus and recounts a time that Caesar and he were swimming in the Tiber (a river in Italy) on a particularly rough day.

"The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it"
-"buffet" - to aggressively challenge; or also to chop at something.

The river is personified as "angry" in the previous lines,
so Cassius is emphasizing how they battled its strong current.

"With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;"
- "to stem" - to make headway against; or to stop, hinder (a flow)

This emphasizes the fitness of the two men, and the
pleasure they get from fighting the unwelcoming waves;
it also describes their movement:
their "hearts of controversy" are their spirit, strong
enough to disregard the warnings of the rapids.

"But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!''"

But before they could make their way to the shore, Caesar could
no longer stay afloat, and calls out to Cassius for help.

This is all pointing to the indignation and fury that Cassius feels towards the god-like stature that he feels Caesar wrongfully projects, since he, Cassius, once saved his life.