PROMETHEUS. HERMES. CHORUS PROMETHEUS THESE are stale tidings I foreknew; Therefore, since suffering is the due A foe must pay his foes, Let curled lightnings clasp and clash And close upon my limbs: loud crash The thunder, and fierce throes Of savage winds convulse calm air: The embowelled blast earth's roots uptear And toss beyond its bars The rough surge, till the roaring deep In one devouring deluge sweep The pathway of the stars! Finally, let him fling my form Down whirling gulfs, the central storm Of being; let me lie Plunged in the black Tartarean gloom; Yet -- yet -- his sentence shall not doom This deathless self to die! HERMES These are the workings of a brain More than a little touched; the vein Of voluble ecstasy! Surely he wandereth from the way, His reason lost, who thus can pray! A mouthing madman he! Therefore, O ye who court his fate, Rash mourners, -- ere it be too late And ye indeed are sad For vengeance spurring hither fast, -- Hence! lest the bellowing thunderblast Like him should strike you mad! CHORUS Words which might work persuasion speak If thou must counsel me; nor seek Thus, like a stream in spate, To uproot mine honour. Dost thou dare Urge me to baseness! I will bear With him all blows of fate; For false forsakers I despise; At treachery my gorge doth rise: -- I spew it forth with hate! HERMES Only, -- with ruin on your track, -- Rail not at fortune; but look back And these my words recall; Neither blame Zeus that he hath sent Sorrow no warning word forewent! Ye labour for your fall With your own hands! Not by surprise Nor yet by stealth, but with clear eyes, Knowing the thing ye do, Ye walk into the yawning net That for the feet of fools is set And Ruin spreads for you. PROMETHEUS The time is past for words; earth quakes Sensibly; hark! pent thunder rakes The depths, with bellowing din Of echoes rolling ever nigher: Lightnings shake out their locks of fire: The dust cones dance and spin; The skipping winds, as if possessed By faction -- north, south, east and west, Puff at each other; sea And sky are shook together: Lo! The swing and fury of the blow Wherewith Zeus smiteth me Sweepeth apace, and, visibly, To strike my heart with fear. See, see Earth, awful mother! Air, That shedd'st from the revolving sky On all the light they see thee by, What bitter wrongs I bear! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHITE LIGHTS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 16 by OMAR KHAYYAM PROMISES LIKE A PIE-CRUST by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI LINES TO A NASTURTIUM (A LOVER MUSES) by ANNE SPENCER ELEGIAC STANZAS SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |