So neck to stubborn neck, and obstinate knee to knee, Wrestled those two; and peerless Heracles Could not prevail, nor get at any vantage - So those huge hands that, small, had snapped great snakes, Let slip the writhing of Antaeus' wrists: Those hero's hands that wrenched the necks of bulls, Now fumbled round the slim Antaeus' limbs, Baffled. Then anger swelled in Heracles, And terribly he grappled broader arms, And yet more firmly fixed his grasped feet. And up his back the muscles bulged and shone Like climbing banks and domes of towering cloud. And they who watched that wrestling say he laughed, But no so loud as on Eurystheus of old. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARIANNA ALCOFORANDO by SARA TEASDALE THE FIRST LESSON by EMILY DICKINSON TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE FIRST DAY: THE LEGEND OF RABBI BEN LEVY by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ALASTOR; OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE DESPAIRING LOVER by WILLIAM WALSH (1663-1707) AND LOCUSTS BLOOM TOMORROW by MILDRED TELFORD BARNWELL NATALITIUM: MARTIJ 13, 1645 by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |