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Prometheus Bound (Browning Translation)

Io enters. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Io. What land is this? what people is here?[Pg 184] And who is he that writhes, I see, In the rock-hung chain? Now what is the crime that hath brought thee to pain? Now what is the land—make answer free— Which I wander through, in my wrong and fear? Ah! ah! ah me! The gad-fly strength to agony! O Earth, keep off that phantasm pale Of earth-born Argus!—ah!—I quail When my soul descries That herdsman with the myriad eyes Which seem, as he comes, one crafty eye Graves hide him not, though he should die, But he doggeth me in my misery From the roots of death, on high—on high— And along the sands of the siding deep, All famine-worn, he follows me, And his waxen reed doth undersound The waters round And giveth a measure that giveth sleep. </div> <div class="stanza"> Woe, woe, woe! Where shall my weary course be done? What wouldst thou with me, Saturn's son? And in what have I sinned, that I should go Thus yoked to grief by thine hand for ever?[Pg 185] Ah! ah! dost vex me so That I madden and shiver Stung through with dread? Flash the fire down to burn me! Heave the earth up to cover me! Plunge me in the deep, with the salt waves over me, That the sea-beasts may be fed! O king, do not spurn me In my prayer! For this wandering everlonger, evermore, Hath overworn me, And I know not on what shore I may rest from my despair. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Hearest thou what the ox-horned maiden saith? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. How could I choose but hearken what she saith, The phrensied maiden?—Inachus's child?— Who love-warms Zeus's heart, and now is lashed By Herè's hate along the unending ways? </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. Who taught thee to articulate that name,— My father's? Speak to his child By grief and shame defiled! Who art thou, victim, thou who dost acclaim[Pg 186] Mine anguish in true words on the wide air, And callest too by name the curse that came From Herè unaware, To waste and pierce me with its maddening goad? Ah—ah—I leap With the pang of the hungry—I bound on the road— I am driven by my doom— I am overcome By the wrath of an enemy strong and deep! Are any of those who have tasted pain, Alas! as wretched as I? Now tell me plain, doth aught remain For my soul to endure beneath the sky? Is there any help to be holpen by? If knowledge be in thee, let it be said! Cry aloud—cry To the wandering, woful maid! </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Whatever thou wouldst learn I will declare,— No riddle upon my lips, but such straight words As friends should use to each other when they talk. Thou seest Prometheus, who gave mortals fire. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. O common Help of all men, known of all, O miserable Prometheus,—for what cause Dost thou endure thus?[Pg 187] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.I have done with wail For my own griefs, but lately. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Wilt thou not Vouchsafe the boon to me? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Say what thou wilt, For I vouchsafe all. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Speak then, and reveal Who shut thee in this chasm. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.The will of Zeus, The hand of his Hephæstus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.And what crime Dost expiate so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Enough for thee I have told In so much only. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Nay, but show besides The limit of my wandering, and the time Which yet is lacking to fulfil my grief. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Why, not to know were better than to know For such as thou. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Beseech thee, blind me not To that which I must suffer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.If I do, The reason is not that I grudge a boon. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. What reason, then, prevents thy speaking out? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. No grudging; but a fear to break thine heart.[Pg 188] </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. Less care for me, I pray thee. Certainty I count for advantage. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Thou wilt have it so, And therefore I must speak. Now hear— </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Not yet. Give half the guerdon my way. Let us learn First, what the curse is that befell the maid,— Her own voice telling her own wasting woes: The sequence of that anguish shall await The teaching of thy lips. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.It doth behove That thou, Maid Io, shouldst vouchsafe to these The grace they pray,—the more, because they are called Thy father's sisters: since to open out And mourn out grief where it is possible To draw a tear from the audience, is a work That pays its own price well. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.I cannot choose But trust you, nymphs, and tell you all ye ask, In clear words—though I sob amid my speech In speaking of the storm-curse sent from Zeus, And of my beauty, from what height it took Its swoop on me, poor wretch! left thus deformed And monstrous to your eyes. For evermore Around my virgin-chamber, wandering went The nightly visions which entreated me[Pg 189] With syllabled smooth sweetness.—"Blessed maid, Why lengthen out thy maiden hours when fate Permits the noblest spousal in the world? When Zeus burns with the arrow of thy love And fain would touch thy beauty?—Maiden, thou Despise not Zeus! depart to Lerné's mead That's green around thy father's flocks and stalls, Until the passion of the heavenly Eye Be quenched in sight." Such dreams did all night long Constrain me—me, unhappy!—till I dared To tell my father how they trod the dark With visionary steps. Whereat he sent His frequent heralds to the Pythian fane, And also to Dodona, and inquired How best, by act or speech, to please the gods. The same returning brought back oracles Of doubtful sense, indefinite response, Dark to interpret; but at last there came To Inachus an answer that was clear, Thrown straight as any bolt, and spoken out— This—"he should drive me from my home and land And bid me wander to the extreme verge Of all the earth—or, if he willed it not, Should have a thunder with a fiery eye Leap straight from Zeus to burn up all his race To the last root of it." By which Loxian word[Pg 190] Subdued, he drove me forth and shut me out, He loth, me loth,—but Zeus's violent bit Compelled him to the deed: when instantly My body and soul were changèd and distraught, And, hornèd as ye see, and spurred along By the fanged insect, with a maniac leap I rushed on to Cenchrea's limpid stream And Lerné's fountain-water. There, the earth-born, The herdsman Argus, most immitigable Of wrath, did find me out, and track me out With countless eyes set staring at my steps: And though an unexpected sudden doom Drew him from life, I, curse-tormented still, Am driven from land to land before the scourge The gods hold o'er me. So thou hast heard the past, And if a bitter future thou canst tell, Speak on. I charge thee, do not flatter me Through pity, with false words; for, in my mind, Deceiving works more shame than torturing doth. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Ah! silence here! Nevermore, nevermore Would I languish for The stranger's word To thrill in mine ear[Pg 191]— Nevermore for the wrong and the woe and the fear So hard to behold, So cruel to bear, Piercing my soul with a double-edged sword Of a sliding cold. Ah Fate! ah me! I shudder to see This wandering maid in her agony. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Grief is too quick in thee and fear too full: Be patient till thou hast learnt the rest. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Speak: teach To those who are sad already, it seems sweet, By clear foreknowledge to make perfect, pain. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. The boon ye asked me first was lightly won,— For first ye asked the story of this maid's grief As her own lips might tell it. Now remains To list what other sorrows she so young Must bear from Herè. Inachus's child, O thou! drop down thy soul my weighty words, And measure out the landmarks which are set To end thy wandering. Toward the orient sun First turn thy face from mine and journey on Along the desert flats till thou shalt come[Pg 192] Where Scythia's shepherd peoples dwell aloft, Perched in wheeled waggons under woven roofs, And twang the rapid arrow past the bow— Approach them not; but siding in thy course The rugged shore-rocks resonant to the sea, Depart that country. On the left hand dwell The iron-workers, called the Chalybes, Of whom beware, for certes they are uncouth And nowise bland to strangers. Reaching so The stream Hybristes (well the scorner called), Attempt no passage,—it is hard to pass,— Or ere thou come to Caucasus itself, That highest of mountains, where the river leaps The precipice in his strength. Thou must toil up Those mountain-tops that neighbour with the stars, And tread the south way, and draw near, at last, The Amazonian host that hateth man, Inhabitants of Themiscyra, close Upon Thermodon, where the sea's rough jaw Doth gnash at Salmydessa and provide A cruel host to seamen, and to ships A stepdame. They with unreluctant hand Shall lead thee on and on, till thou arrive Just where the ocean-gates show narrowest On the Cimmerian isthmus. Leaving which, Behoves thee swim with fortitude of soul[Pg 193] The strait Mæotis. Ay, and evermore That traverse shall be famous on men's lips, That strait, called Bosphorus, the horned-one's road, So named because of thee, who so wilt pass From Europe's plain to Asia's continent. How think ye, nymphs? the king of gods appears Impartial in ferocious deeds? Behold! The god desirous of this mortal's love Hath cursed her with these wanderings. Ah, fair child, Thou hast met a bitter groom for bridal troth! For all thou yet hast heard can only prove The incompleted prelude of thy doom. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. Ah, ah! </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Is 't thy turn, now, to shriek and moan? How wilt thou, when thou hast hearkened what remains? </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Besides the grief thou hast told can aught remain? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. A sea—of foredoomed evil worked to storm. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. What boots my life, then? why not cast myself Down headlong from this miserable rock, That, dashed against the flats, I may redeem My soul from sorrow? Better once to die Than day by day to suffer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Verily,[Pg 194] It would be hard for thee to bear my woe For whom it is appointed not to die. Death frees from woe: but I before me see In all my far prevision not a bound To all I suffer, ere that Zeus shall fall From being a king. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.And can it ever be That Zeus shall fall from empire? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Thou, methinks, Wouldst take some joy to see it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Could I choose? I who endure such pangs now, by that god! </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Learn from me, therefore, that the event shall be. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. By whom shall his imperial sceptred hand Be emptied so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Himself shall spoil himself, Through his idiotic counsels. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.How? declare: Unless the word bring evil. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.He shall wed; And in the marriage-bond be joined to grief. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io. A heavenly bride—or human? Speak it out If it be utterable. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Why should I say which? It ought not to be uttered, verily.[Pg 195] </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Then It is his wife shall tear him from his throne? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. It is his wife shall bear a son to him, More mighty than the father. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.From this doom Hath he no refuge? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.None: or ere that I, Loosed from these fetters— </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Yea—but who shall loose While Zeus is adverse? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.One who is born of thee: It is ordained so. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.What is this thou sayest? A son of mine shall liberate thee from woe? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. After ten generations, count three more, And find him in the third. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.The oracle Remains obscure. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.And search it not, to learn Thine own griefs from it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Point me not to a good, To leave me straight bereaved. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.I am prepared To grant thee one of two things. </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.But which two? Set them before me; grant me power to choose.[Pg 196] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I grant it, choose now: shall I name aloud What griefs remain to wound thee, or what hand Shall save me out of mine? </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Vouchsafe, O god, The one grace of the twain to her who prays; The next to me; and turn back neither prayer Dishonour'd by denial. To herself Recount the future wandering of her feet; Then point me to the looser of thy chain, Because I yearn to know him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Since ye will, Of absolute will, this knowledge, I will set No contrary against it, nor keep back A word of all ye ask for. Io, first To thee I must relate thy wandering course Far winding. As I tell it, write it down In thy soul's book of memories. When thou hast past The refluent bound that parts two continents, Track on the footsteps of the orient sun In his own fire, across the roar of seas,— Fly till thou hast reached the Gorgonæan flats Beside Cisthené. There, the Phorcides, Three ancient maidens, live, with shape of swan, One tooth between them, and one common eye: On whom the sun doth never look at all[Pg 197] With all his rays, nor evermore the moon When she looks through the night. Anear to whom Are the Gorgon sisters three, enclothed with wings, With twisted snakes for ringlets, man-abhorred: There is no mortal gazes in their face And gazing can breathe on. I speak of such To guard thee from their horror. Ay, and list Another tale of a dreadful sight; beware The Griffins, those unbarking dogs of Zeus, Those sharp-mouthed dogs!—and the Arimaspian host Of one-eyed horsemen, habiting beside The river of Pluto that runs bright with gold: Approach them not, beseech thee! Presently Thou'lt come to a distant land, a dusky tribe Of dwellers at the fountain of the Sun, Whence flows the river Æthiops; wind along Its banks and turn off at the cataracts, Just as the Nile pours from the Bybline hills His holy and sweet wave; his course shall guide Thine own to that triangular Nile-ground Where, Io, is ordained for thee and thine A lengthened exile. Have I said in this Aught darkly or incompletely?—now repeat The question, make the knowledge fuller! Lo, I have more leisure than I covet, here.[Pg 198] </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. If thou canst tell us aught that's left untold, Or loosely told, of her most dreary flight, Declare it straight: but if thou hast uttered all, Grant us that latter grace for which we prayed, Remembering how we prayed it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.She has heard The uttermost of her wandering. There it ends. But that she may be certain not to have heard All vainly, I will speak what she endured Ere coming hither, and invoke the past To prove my prescience true. And so—to leave A multitude of words and pass at once To the subject of thy course—when thou hadst gone To those Molossian plains which sweep around Dodona shouldering Heaven, whereby the fane Of Zeus Thesprotian keepeth oracle, And, wonder past belief, where oaks do wave Articulate adjurations—(ay, the same Saluted thee in no perplexèd phrase But clear with glory, noble wife of Zeus That shouldst be,—there some sweetness took thy sense!) Thou didst rush further onward, stung along The ocean-shore, toward Rhea's mighty bay[Pg 199] And, tost back from it, wast tost to it again In stormy evolution:—and, know well, In coming time that hollow of the sea Shall bear the name Ionian and present A monument of Io's passage through Unto all mortals. Be these words the signs Of my soul's power to look beyond the veil Of visible things. The rest, to you and her I will declare in common audience, nymphs, Returning thither where my speech brake off. There is a town Canobus, built upon The earth's fair margin at the mouth of Nile And on the mound washed up by it; Io, there Shall Zeus give back to thee thy perfect mind, And only by the pressure and the touch Of a hand not terrible; and thou to Zeus Shalt bear a dusky son who shall be called Thence, Epaphus, Touched. That son shall pluck the fruit Of all that land wide-watered by the flow Of Nile; but after him, when counting out As far as the fifth full generation, then Full fifty maidens, a fair woman-race, Shall back to Argos turn reluctantly, To fly the proffered nuptials of their kin, Their father's brothers. These being passion struck,[Pg 200] Like falcons bearing hard on flying doves, Shall follow, hunting at a quarry of love They should not hunt; till envious Heaven maintain A curse betwixt that beauty and their desire, And Greece receive them, to be overcome In murtherous woman-war, by fierce red hands Kept savage by the night. For every wife Shall slay a husband, dyeing deep in blood The sword of a double edge—(I wish indeed As fair a marriage-joy to all my foes!) One bride alone shall fail to smite to death The head upon her pillow, touched with love, Made impotent of purpose and impelled To choose the lesser evil,—shame on her cheeks, Than blood-guilt on her hands: which bride shall bear A royal race in Argos. Tedious speech Were needed to relate particulars Of these things; 'tis enough that from her seed Shall spring the strong He, famous with the bow, Whose arm shall break my fetters off. Behold, My mother Themis, that old Titaness, Delivered to me such an oracle,— But how and when, I should be long to speak, And thou, in hearing, wouldst not gain at all.[Pg 201] </div> <div class="stanza"> Io.Eleleu, eleleu! How the spasm and the pain And the fire on the brain Strike, burning me through! How the sting of the curse, all aflame as it flew, Pricks me onward again! How my heart in its terror is spurning my breast, And my eyes, like the wheels of a chariot, roll round! I am whirled from my course, to the east, to the west, In the whirlwind of phrensy all madly inwound— And my mouth is unbridled for anguish and hate, And my words beat in vain, in wild storms of unrest, On the sea of my desolate fate. </div> </div> [Io rushes out. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Chorus.—Strophe. Oh, wise was he, oh, wise was he Who first within his spirit knew And with his tongue declared it true That love comes best that comes unto The equal of degree! And that the poor and that the low Should seek no love from those above, Whose souls are fluttered with the flow Of airs about their golden height, Or proud because they see arow Ancestral crowns of light.[Pg 202] </div> <div class="stanza"> Antistrophe. Oh, never, never may ye, Fates, Behold me with your awful eyes Lift mine too fondly up the skies Where Zeus upon the purple waits! Nor let me step too near—too near To any suitor, bright from heaven: Because I see, because I fear This loveless maiden vexed and laden By this fell curse of Heré, driven On wanderings dread and drear. </div> <div class="stanza"> Epode. Nay, grant an equal troth instead Of nuptial love, to bind me by! It will not hurt, I shall not dread To meet it in reply. But let not love from those above Revert and fix me, as I said, With that inevitable Eye! I have no sword to fight that fight, I have no strength to tread that path, I know not if my nature hath The power to bear, I cannot see Whither from Zeus's infinite I have the power to flee.[Pg 203] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Yet Zeus, albeit most absolute of will, Shall turn to meekness,—such a marriage-rite He holds in preparation, which anon Shall thrust him headlong from his gerent seat Adown the abysmal void, and so the curse His father Chronos muttered in his fall, As he fell from his ancient throne and cursed, Shall be accomplished wholly. No escape From all that ruin shall the filial Zeus Find granted to him from any of his gods, Unless I teach him. I the refuge know, And I, the means. Now, therefore, let him sit And brave the imminent doom, and fix his faith On his supernal noises, hurtling on With restless hand the bolt that breathes out fire; For these things shall not help him, none of them, Nor hinder his perdition when he falls To shame, and lower than patience: such a foe He doth himself prepare against himself, A wonder of unconquerable hate, An organizer of sublimer fire Than glares in lightnings, and of grander sound Than aught the thunder rolls, out-thundering it, With power to shatter in Poseidon's fist The trident-spear which, while it plagues the sea, Doth shake the shores around it. Ay, and Zeus,[Pg 204] Precipitated thus, shall learn at length The difference betwixt rule and servitude. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Thou makest threats for Zeus of thy desires. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I tell you, all these things shall be fulfilled. Even so as I desire them. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Must we then Look out for one shall come to master Zeus? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. These chains weigh lighter than his sorrows shall. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. How art thou not afraid to utter such words? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. What should I fear who cannot die? </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.But he Can visit thee with dreader woe than death's. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Why, let him do it! I am here, prepared For all things and their pangs. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.The wise are they Who reverence Adrasteia. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Reverence thou, Adore thou, flatter thou, whomever reigns, Whenever reigning! but for me, your Zeus Is less than nothing. Let him act and reign His brief hour out according to his will— He will not, therefore, rule the gods too long. But lo! I see that courier-god of Zeus, That new-made menial of the new-crowned king: He doubtless comes to announce to us something new. [Pg 205]</div> </div> Hermes enters. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Hermes. I speak to thee, the sophist, the talker-down Of scorn by scorn, the sinner against gods, The reverencer of men, the thief of fire,— I speak to thee and adjure thee! Zeus requires Thy declaration of what marriage-rite Thus moves thy vaunt and shall hereafter cause His fall from empire. Do not wrap thy speech In riddles, but speak clearly! Never cast Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet, Since Zeus, thou mayst perceive, is scarcely won To mercy by such means. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.A speech well-mouthed In the utterance, and full-minded in the sense, As doth befit a servant of the gods! New gods, ye newly reign, and think forsooth Ye dwell in towers too high for any dart To carry a wound there!—have I not stood by While two kings fell from thence? and shall I not Behold the third, the same who rules you now, Fall, shamed to sudden ruin?—Do I seem To tremble and quail before your modern gods? Far be it from me!—For thyself, depart, Re-tread thy steps in haste. To all thou hast asked I answer nothing.[Pg 206] </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes.Such a wind of pride Impelled thee of yore full-sail upon these rocks. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I would not barter—-learn thou soothly that!— My suffering for thy service. I maintain It is a nobler thing to serve these rocks Than live a faithful slave to father Zeus. Thus upon scorners I retort their scorn. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. It seems that thou dost glory in thy despair. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I glory? would my foes did glory so, And I stood by to see them!—naming whom, Thou art not unremembered. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes.Dost thou charge Me also with the blame of thy mischance? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I tell thee I loathe the universal gods, Who for the good I gave them rendered back The ill of their injustice. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes.Thou art mad— Thou art raving, Titan, at the fever-height. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. If it be madness to abhor my foes, May I be mad! </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes.If thou wert prosperous Thou wouldst be unendurable. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Alas! </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Zeus knows not that word.[Pg 207] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.But maturing Time Teaches all things. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes.Howbeit, thou hast not learnt The wisdom yet, thou needest. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.If I had, I should not talk thus with a slave like thee. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. No answer thou vouchsafest, I believe, To the great Sire's requirement. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Verily I owe him grateful service,—and should pay it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Why, thou dost mock me, Titan, as I stood A child before thy face. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.No child, forsooth, But yet more foolish than a foolish child, If thou expect that I should answer aught Thy Zeus can ask. No torture from his hand Nor any machination in the world Shall force mine utterance ere he loose, himself, These cankerous fetters from me. For the rest, Let him now hurl his blanching lightnings down, And with his white-winged snows and mutterings deep Of subterranean thunders mix all things, Confound them in disorder. None of this Shall bend my sturdy will and make me speak The name of his dethroner who shall come. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Can this avail thee? Look to it![Pg 208] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Long ago It was looked forward to, precounselled of. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Vain god, take righteous courage! dare for once To apprehend and front thine agonies With a just prudence. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Vainly dost thou chafe My soul with exhortation, as yonder sea Goes beating on the rock. Oh, think no more That I, fear-struck by Zeus to a woman's mind, Will supplicate him, loathèd as he is, With feminine upliftings of my hands, To break these chains. Far from me be the thought! </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. I have indeed, methinks, said much in vain, For still thy heart beneath my showers of prayers Lies dry and hard—nay, leaps like a young horse Who bites against the new bit in his teeth, And tugs and struggles against the new-tried rein,— Still fiercest in the feeblest thing of all, Which sophism is; since absolute will disjoined From perfect mind is worse than weak. Behold, Unless my words persuade thee, what a blast And whirlwind of inevitable woe Must sweep persuasion through thee! For at first The Father will split up this jut of rock With the great thunder and the bolted flame[Pg 209] And hide thy body where a hinge of stone Shall catch it like an arm; and when thou hast passed A long black time within, thou shalt come out To front the sun while Zeus's winged hound, The strong carnivorous eagle, shall wheel down To meet thee, self-called to a daily feast, And set his fierce beak in thee and tear off The long rags of thy flesh and batten deep Upon thy dusky liver. Do not look For any end moreover to this curse Or ere some god appear, to accept thy pangs On his own head vicarious, and descend With unreluctant step the darks of hell And gloomy abysses around Tartarus. Then ponder this—this threat is not a growth Of vain invention; it is spoken and meant; King Zeus's mouth is impotent to lie, Consummating the utterance by the act; So, look to it, thou! take heed, and nevermore Forget good counsel, to indulge self-will. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Our Hermes suits his reasons to the times; At least I think so, since he bids thee drop Self-will for prudent counsel. Yield to him! When the wise err, their wisdom makes their shame. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Unto me the foreknower, this mandate of power[Pg 210] He cries, to reveal it. What's strange in my fate, if I suffer from hate At the hour that I feel it? Let the locks of the lightning, all bristling and whitening, Flash, coiling me round, While the æther goes surging 'neath thunder and scourging Of wild winds unbound! Let the blast of the firmament whirl from its place The earth rooted below, And the brine of the ocean, in rapid emotion, Be driven in the face Of the stars up in heaven, as they walk to and fro! Let him hurl me anon into Tartarus—on— To the blackest degree, With Necessity's vortices strangling me down; But he cannot join death to a fate meant for me! </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Why, the words that he speaks and the thoughts that he thinks Are maniacal!—add, If the Fate who hath bound him should loose not the links, He were utterly mad. Then depart ye who groan with him, Leaving to moan with him,— Go in haste! lest the roar of the thunder anearing Should blast you to idiocy, living and hearing.[Pg 211] </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Change thy speech for another, thy thought for a new, If to move me and teach me indeed be thy care! For thy words swerve so far from the loyal and true That the thunder of Zeus seems more easy to bear. How! couldst teach me to venture such vileness? behold! I choose, with this victim, this anguish foretold! I recoil from the traitor in hate and disdain, And I know that the curse of the treason is worse Than the pang of the chain. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hermes. Then remember, O nymphs, what I tell you before, Nor, when pierced by the arrows that Até will throw you, Cast blame on your fate and declare evermore That Zeus thrust you on anguish he did not foreshow you. Nay, verily, nay! for ye perish anon For your deed—by your choice. By no blindness of doubt, No abruptness of doom, but by madness alone, In the great net of Até, whence none cometh out, Ye are wound and undone. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Ay! in act now, in word now no more, Earth is rocking in space. And the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar, And the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face,[Pg 212] And the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round, And the blasts of the winds universal leap free And blow each upon each with a passion of sound, And æther goes mingling in storm with the sea. Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread, From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along. O my mother's fair glory! O Æther, enringing All eyes with the sweet common light of thy bringing! Dost see how I suffer this wrong? </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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