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Prometheus Bound (Browning Translation)

<h2>PROMETHEUS BOUND</h2> <h2>by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING</h2> Scene.—Strength and Force, Hephæstus and Prometheus, at the Rocks. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Strength. We reach the utmost limit of the earth, The Scythian track, the desert without man. And now, Hephæstus, thou must needs fulfil The mandate of our Father, and with links Indissoluble of adamantine chains Fasten against this beetling precipice This guilty god. Because he filched away Thine own bright flower, the glory of plastic fire, And gifted mortals with it,—such a sin It doth behove he expiate to the gods, Learning to accept the empery of Zeus And leave off his old trick of loving man. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. O Strength and Force, for you, our Zeus's will Presents a deed for doing, no more!—but I,[Pg 156] I lack your daring, up this storm-rent chasm To fix with violent hands a kindred god, Howbeit necessity compels me so That I must dare it, and our Zeus commands With a most inevitable word. Ho, thou! High-thoughted son of Themis who is sage! Thee loth, I loth must rivet fast in chains Against this rocky height unclomb by man, Where never human voice nor face shall find Out thee who lov'st them, and thy beauty's flower, Scorched in the sun's clear heat, shall fade away. Night shall come up with garniture of stars To comfort thee with shadow, and the sun Disperse with retrickt beams the morning-frosts, But through all changes sense of present woe Shall vex thee sore, because with none of them There comes a hand to free. Such fruit is plucked From love of man! and in that thou, a god, Didst brave the wrath of gods and give away Undue respect to mortals, for that crime Thou art adjudged to guard this joyless rock, Erect, unslumbering, bending not the knee, And many a cry and unavailing moan To utter on the air. For Zeus is stern And new-made kings are cruel. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Be it so.[Pg 157] Why loiter in vain pity? Why not hate A god the gods hate? one too who betrayed Thy glory unto men? </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.An awful thing Is kinship joined to friendship. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Grant it be; Is disobedience to the Father's word A possible thing? Dost quail not more for that? </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. Thou, at least, art a stern one: ever bold. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength. Why, if I wept, it were no remedy; And do not thou spend labour on the air To bootless uses. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.Cursed handicraft! I curse and hate thee, O my craft! </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Why hate Thy craft most plainly innocent of all These pending ills? </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.I would some other hand Were here to work it! </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.All work hath its pain, Except to rule the gods. There is none free Except King Zeus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.I know it very well: I argue not against it. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Why not, then,[Pg 158] Make haste and lock the fetters over him Lest Zeus behold thee lagging? </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.Here be chains. Zeus may behold these. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Seize him: strike amain: Strike with the hammer on each side his hands— Rivet him to the rock. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.The work is done, And thoroughly done. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Still faster grapple him; Wedge him in deeper: leave no inch to stir. He's terrible for finding a way out From the irremediable. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.Here's an arm, at least, Grappled past freeing. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Now then, buckle me The other securely. Let this wise one learn He's duller than our Zeus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.Oh, none but he Accuse me justly. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Now, straight through the chest, Take him and bite him with the clenching tooth Of the adamantine wedge, and rivet him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. Alas, Prometheus, what thou sufferest here I sorrow over. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Dost thou flinch again[Pg 159] And breathe groans for the enemies of Zeus? Beware lest thine own pity find thee out. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. Thou dost behold a spectacle that turns The sight o' the eyes to pity. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.I behold A sinner suffer his sin's penalty. But lash the thongs about his sides. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus.So much, I must do. Urge no farther than I must. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength. Ay, but I will urge!—and, with shout on shout, Will hound thee at this quarry. Get thee down And ring amain the iron round his legs. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. That work was not long doing. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Heavily now Let fall the strokes upon the perforant gyves: For He who rates the work has a heavy hand. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. Thy speech is savage as thy shape. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength.Be thou Gentle and tender! but revile not me For the firm will and the untruckling hate. </div> <div class="stanza"> Hephæstus. Let us go. He is netted round with chains. </div> <div class="stanza"> Strength. Here, now, taunt on! and having spoiled the gods Of honours, crown withal thy mortal men[Pg 160] Who live a whole day out. Why how could they Draw off from thee one single of thy griefs? Methinks the Dæmons gave thee a wrong name, "Prometheus," which means Providence,—because Thou dost thyself need providence to see Thy roll and ruin from the top of doom. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus (alone). O holy Æther, and swift-wingèd Winds, And River-wells, and laughter innumerous Of yon sea-waves! Earth, mother of us all, And all-viewing cyclic Sun, I cry on you,— Behold me, a god, what I endure from gods! Behold, with throe on throe, How, wasted by this woe, I wrestle down the myriad years of time! Behold, how fast around me, The new King of the happy ones sublime Has flung the chain he forged, has shamed and bound me! Woe, woe! to-day's woe and the coming morrow's I cover with one groan. And where is found me A limit to these sorrows? And yet what word do I say? I have foreknown Clearly all things that should be; nothing done Comes sudden to my soul; and I must bear What is ordained with patience, being aware[Pg 161] Necessity doth front the universe With an invincible gesture. Yet this curse Which strikes me now, I find it hard to brave In silence or in speech. Because I gave Honour to mortals, I have yoked my soul To this compelling fate. Because I stole The secret fount of fire, whose bubbles went Over the ferule's brim, and manward sent Art's mighty means and perfect rudiment, That sin I expiate in this agony, Hung here in fetters, 'neath the blanching sky. Ah, ah me! what a sound, What a fragrance sweeps up from a pinion unseen Of a god, or a mortal, or nature between, Sweeping up to this rock where the earth has her bound, To have sight of my pangs or some guerdon obtain. Lo, a god in the anguish, a god in the chain! The god, Zeus hateth sore And his gods hate again, As many as tread on his glorified floor, Because I loved mortals too much evermore. Alas me! what a murmur and motion I hear, As of birds flying near! And the air undersings The light stroke of their wings— And all life that approaches I wait for in fear.[Pg 162] </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus of Sea Nymphs, 1st Strophe. Fear nothing! our troop Floats lovingly up With a quick-oaring stroke Of wings steered to the rock, Having softened the soul of our father below. For the gales of swift-bearing have sent me a sound, And the clank of the iron, the malleted blow, Smote down the profound Of my caverns of old, And struck the red light in a blush from my brow,— Till I sprang up unsandaled, in haste to behold, And rushed forth on my chariot of wings manifold. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Alas me!—alas me! Ye offspring of Tethys who bore at her breast Many children, and eke of Oceanus, he Coiling still around earth with perpetual unrest! Behold me and see How transfixed with the fang Of a fetter I hang On the high-jutting rocks of this fissure and keep An uncoveted watch o'er the world and the deep. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus, 1st Antistrophe. I behold thee, Prometheus; yet now, yet now,[Pg 163] A terrible cloud whose rain is tears Sweeps over mine eyes that witness how Thy body appears Hung awaste on the rocks by infrangible chains: For new is the Hand, new the rudder that steers The ship of Olympus through surge and wind— And of old things passed, no track is behind. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Under earth, under Hades Where the home of the shade is, All into the deep, deep Tartarus, I would he had hurled me adown. I would he had plunged me, fastened thus In the knotted chain with the savage clang, All into the dark where there should be none, Neither god nor another, to laugh and see. But now the winds sing through and shake The hurtling chains wherein I hang, And I, in my naked sorrows, make Much mirth for my enemy. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus, 2nd Strophe. Nay! who of the gods hath a heart so stern As to use thy woe for a mock and mirth? Who would not turn more mild to learn Thy sorrows? who of the heaven and earth[Pg 164] Save Zeus? But he Right wrathfully Bears on his sceptral soul unbent And rules thereby the heavenly seed, Nor will he pause till he content His thirsty heart in a finished deed; Or till Another shall appear, To win by fraud, to seize by fear The hard-to-be-captured government. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Yet even of me he shall have need, That monarch of the blessed seed, Of me, of me, who now am cursed By his fetters dire,— To wring my secret out withal And learn by whom his sceptre shall Be filched from him—as was, at first, His heavenly fire. But he never shall enchant me With his honey-lipped persuasion; Never, never shall he daunt me With the oath and threat of passion Into speaking as they want me, Till he loose this savage chain, And accept the expiation Of my sorrow, in his pain.[Pg 165] </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus, 2nd Antistrophe. Thou art, sooth, a brave god, And, for all thou hast borne From the stroke of the rod, Nought relaxest from scorn. But thou speakest unto me Too free and unworn; And a terror strikes through me And festers my soul And I fear, in the roll Of the storm, for thy fate In the ship far from shore: Since the son of Saturnus is hard in his hate And unmoved in his heart evermore. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I know that Zeus is stern; I know he metes his justice by his will; And yet, his soul shall learn More softness when once broken by this ill: And curbing his unconquerable vaunt He shall rush on in fear to meet with me Who rush to meet with him in agony, To issues of harmonious covenant. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Remove the veil from all things and relate[Pg 166] The story to us,—of what crime accused, Zeus smites thee with dishonourable pangs. Speak: if to teach us do not grieve thyself. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. The utterance of these things is torture to me, But so, too, is their silence; each way lies Woe strong as fate. When gods began with wrath, And war rose up between their starry brows, Some choosing to cast Chronos from his throne That Zeus might king it there, and some in haste With opposite oaths that they would have no Zeus To rule the gods for ever,—I, who brought The counsel I thought meetest, could not move The Titans, children of the Heaven and Earth, What time, disdaining in their rugged souls My subtle machinations, they assumed It was an easy thing for force to take The mastery of fate. My mother, then, Who is called not only Themis but Earth too, (Her single beauty joys in many names) Did teach me with reiterant prophecy What future should be, and how conquering gods Should not prevail by strength and violence But by guile only. When I told them so, They would not deign to contemplate the truth[Pg 167] On all sides round; whereat I deemed it best To lead my willing mother upwardly And set my Themis face to face with Zeus As willing to receive her. Tartarus, With its abysmal cloister of the Dark, Because I gave that counsel, covers up The antique Chronos and his siding hosts, And, by that counsel helped, the king of gods Hath recompensed me with these bitter pangs: For kingship wears a cancer at the heart,— Distrust in friendship. Do ye also ask What crime it is for which he tortures me? That shall be clear before you. When at first He filled his father's throne, he instantly Made various gifts of glory to the gods And dealt the empire out. Alone of men, Of miserable men, he took no count, But yearned to sweep their track off from the world And plant a newer race there. Not a god Resisted such desire except myself. I dared it! I drew mortals back to light, From meditated ruin deep as hell! For which wrong, I am bent down in these pangs Dreadful to suffer, mournful to behold, And I, who pitied man, am thought myself Unworthy of pity; while I render out[Pg 168] Deep rhythms of anguish 'neath the harping hand That strikes me thus—a sight to shame your Zeus! </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Hard as thy chains and cold as all these rocks Is he, Prometheus, who withholds his heart </div> <div class="stanza"> From joining in thy woe. I yearned before To fly this sight; and, now I gaze on it, I sicken inwards. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.To my friends, indeed, I must be a sad sight. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.And didst thou sin No more than so? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.I did restrain besides My mortals from premeditating death. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. How didst thou medicine the plague-fear of death? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I set blind Hopes to inhabit in their house. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. By that gift thou didst help thy mortals well. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I gave them also fire. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.And have they now, Those creatures of a day, the red-eyed fire? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. They have: and shall learn by it many arts. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. And truly for such sins Zeus tortures thee And will remit no anguish? Is there set No limit before thee to thine agony?[Pg 169] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. No other: only what seems good to him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. And how will it seem good? what hope remains? Seest thou not that thou hast sinned? But that thou hast sinned It glads me not to speak of, and grieves thee: Then let it pass from both, and seek thyself Some outlet from distress. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.It is in truth An easy thing to stand aloof from pain And lavish exhortation and advice On one vexed sorely by it. I have known All in prevision. By my choice, my choice, I freely sinned—I will confess my sin— And helping mortals, found my own despair. I did not think indeed that I should pine Beneath such pangs against such skyey rocks, Doomed to this drear hill and no neighbouring Of any life: but mourn not ye for griefs I bear to-day: hear rather, dropping down To the plain, how other woes creep on to me, And learn the consummation of my doom. Beseech you, nymphs, beseech you, grieve for me Who now am grieving; for Grief walks the earth, And sits down at the foot of each by turns. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. We hear the deep clash of thy words,[Pg 170] Prometheus, and obey. And I spring with a rapid foot away From the rushing car and the holy air, The track of birds; And I drop to the rugged ground and there Await the tale of thy despair. </div> </div> Oceanus enters. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Oceanus. I reach the bourn of my weary road Where I may see and answer thee, Prometheus, in thine agony. On the back of the quick-winged bird I glode, And I bridled him in With the will of a god. Behold, thy sorrow aches in me Constrained by the force of kin. Nay, though that tie were all undone, For the life of none beneath the sun Would I seek a larger benison Than I seek for thine. And thou shalt learn my words are truth,— That no fair parlance of the mouth Grows falsely out of mine. Now give me a deed to prove my faith; For no faster friend is named in breath Than I, Oceanus, am thine.[Pg 171] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Ha! what has brought thee? Hast thou also come To look upon my woe? How hast thou dared To leave the depths called after thee, the caves Self-hewn and self-roofed with spontaneous rock, To visit earth, the mother of my chain? Hast come indeed to view my doom and mourn That I should sorrow thus? Gaze on, and see How I, the fast friend of your Zeus,—how I The erector of the empire in his hand, Am bent beneath that hand, in this despair. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Prometheus, I behold: and I would fain Exhort thee, though already subtle enough, To a better wisdom. Titan, know thyself, And take new softness to thy manners since A new king rules the gods. If words like these, Harsh words and trenchant, thou wilt fling abroad, Zeus haply, though he sit so far and high, May hear thee do it, and so, this wrath of his Which now affects thee fiercely, shall appear A mere child's sport at vengeance. Wretched god, Rather dismiss the passion which thou hast, And seek a change from grief. Perhaps I seem To address thee with old saws and outworn sense,— Yet such a curse, Prometheus, surely waits On lips that speak too proudly: thou, meantime,[Pg 172] Art none the meeker, nor dost yield a jot To evil circumstance, preparing still To swell the account of grief with other griefs Than what are borne. Beseech thee, use me then For counsel: do not spurn against the pricks,— Seeing that who reigns, reigns by cruelty Instead of right. And now, I go from hence, And will endeavour if a power of mine Can break thy fetters through. For thee,—be calm, And smooth thy words from passion. Knowest thou not Of perfect knowledge, thou who knowest too much, That where the tongue wags, ruin never lags? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. I gratulate thee who hast shared and dared All things with me, except their penalty. Enough so! leave these thoughts. It cannot be That thou shouldst move Him. He may not be moved; And thou beware of sorrow on this road. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Ay! ever wiser for another's use Than thine! the event, and not the prophecy, Attests it to me. Yet where now I rush, Thy wisdom hath no power to drag me back; Because I glory, glory, to go hence And win for thee deliverance from thy pangs, As a free gift from Zeus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Why there, again,[Pg 173] I give thee gratulation and applause. Thou lackest no goodwill. But, as for deeds, Do nought! 'twere all done vainly; helping nought, Whatever thou wouldst do. Rather take rest And keep thyself from evil. If I grieve, I do not therefore wish to multiply The griefs of others. Verily, not so! For still my brother's doom doth vex my soul,— My brother Atlas, standing in the west, Shouldering the column of the heaven and earth, A difficult burden! I have also seen, And pitied as I saw, the earth-born one, The inhabitant of old Cilician caves, The great war-monster of the hundred heads, (All taken and bowed beneath the violent Hand,) Typhon the fierce, who did resist the gods, And, hissing slaughter from his dreadful jaws, Flash out ferocious glory from his eyes As if to storm the throne of Zeus. Whereat, The sleepless arrow of Zeus flew straight at him, The headlong bolt of thunder breathing flame, And struck him downward from his eminence Of exultation; through the very soul, It struck him, and his strength was withered up To ashes, thunder-blasted. Now he lies A helpless trunk supinely, at full length[Pg 174] Beside the strait of ocean, spurred into By roots of Ætna; high upon whose tops Hephæstus sits and strikes the flashing ore. From thence the rivers of fire shall burst away Hereafter, and devour with savage jaws The equal plains of fruitful Sicily, Such passion he shall boil back in hot darts Of an insatiate fury and sough of flame, Fallen Typhon,—howsoever struck and charred By Zeus's bolted thunder. But for thee, Thou art not so unlearned as to need My teaching—let thy knowledge save thyself. I quaff the full cup of a present doom, And wait till Zeus hath quenched his will in wrath. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Prometheus, art thou ignorant of this, That words do medicine anger? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.If the word With seasonable softness touch the soul And, where the parts are ulcerous, sear them not By any rudeness. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus.With a noble aim To dare as nobly—is there harm in that? Dost thou discern it? Teach me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.I discern Vain aspiration, unresultive work. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Then suffer me to bear the brunt of this![Pg 175] Since it is profitable that one who is wise Should seem not wise at all. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.And such would seem My very crime. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus.In truth thine argument Sends me back home. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Lest any lament for me Should cast thee down to hate. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus.The hate of him Who sits a new king on the absolute throne? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Beware of him, lest thine heart grieve by him. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Thy doom, Prometheus, be my teacher! </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Go. Depart—beware—and keep the mind thou hast. </div> <div class="stanza"> Oceanus. Thy words drive after, as I rush before. Lo! my four-footed bird sweeps smooth and wide The flats of air with balanced pinions, glad To bend his knee at home in the ocean-stall. </div> </div> [Oceanus departs. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Chorus, 1st Strophe. I moan thy fate, I moan for thee, Prometheus! From my eyes too tender, Drop after drop incessantly The tears of my heart's pity render[Pg 176] My cheeks wet from their fountains free; Because that Zeus, the stern and cold, Whose law is taken from his breast, Uplifts his sceptre manifest Over the gods of old. </div> <div class="stanza"> 1st Antistrophe. All the land is moaning With a murmured plaint to-day; All the mortal nations Having habitations In the holy Asia Are a dirge entoning For thine honour and thy brothers', Once majestic beyond others In the old belief,— Now are groaning in the groaning Of thy deep-voiced grief. </div> <div class="stanza"> 2nd Strophe. Mourn the maids inhabitant Of the Colchian land, Who with white, calm bosoms stand In the battle's roar: Mourn the Scythian tribes that haunt The verge of earth, Mæotis' shore.[Pg 177] </div> <div class="stanza"> 2nd Antistrophe. Yea! Arabia's battle-crown, And dwellers in the beetling town Mount Caucasus sublimely nears,— An iron squadron, thundering down With the sharp-prowed spears. </div> <div class="stanza"> But one other before, have I seen to remain By invincible pain Bound and vanquished,—one Titan! 'twas Atlas, who bears In a curse from the gods, by that strength of his own Which he evermore wears, The weight of the heaven on his shoulder alone, While he sighs up the stars; And the tides of the ocean wail bursting their bars,— Murmurs still the profound, And black Hades roars up through the chasm of the ground, And the fountains of pure-running rivers moan low In a pathos of woe. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. Beseech you, think not I am silent thus Through pride or scorn. I only gnaw my heart With meditation, seeing myself so wronged. For see—their honours to these new-made gods,[Pg 178] What other gave but I, and dealt them out With distribution? Ay—but here I am dumb! For here, I should repeat your knowledge to you, If I spake aught. List rather to the deeds I did for mortals; how, being fools before, I made them wise and true in aim of soul. And let me tell you—not as taunting men, But teaching you the intention of my gifts, How, first beholding, they beheld in vain, And hearing, heard not, but, like shapes in dreams, Mixed all things wildly down the tedious time, Nor knew to build a house against the sun With wickered sides, nor any woodcraft knew, But lived, like silly ants, beneath the ground In hollow caves unsunned. There, came to them No steadfast sign of winter, nor of spring Flower-perfumed, nor of summer full of fruit, But blindly and lawlessly they did all things, Until I taught them how the stars do rise And set in mystery, and devised for them Number, the inducer of philosophies, The synthesis of Letters, and, beside, The artificer of all things, Memory, That sweet Muse-mother. I was first to yoke The servile beasts in couples, carrying An heirdom of man's burdens on their backs.[Pg 179] I joined to chariots, steeds, that love the bit They champ at—the chief pomp of golden ease. And none but I originated ships, The seaman's chariots, wandering on the brine With linen wings. And I—oh, miserable!— Who did devise for mortals all these arts, Have no device left now to save myself From the woe I suffer. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Most unseemly woe Thou sufferest, and dost stagger from the sense Bewildered! like a bad leech falling sick Thou art faint at soul, and canst not find the drugs Required to save thyself. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Hearken the rest, And marvel further, what more arts and means I did invent,—this, greatest: if a man Fell sick, there was no cure, nor esculent Nor chrism nor liquid, but for lack of drugs Men pined and wasted, till I showed them all Those mixtures of emollient remedies Whereby they might be rescued from disease. I fixed the various rules of mantic art, Discerned the vision from the common dream, Instructed them in vocal auguries Hard to interpret, and defined as plain The wayside omens,—flights of crook-clawed birds,[Pg 180]— Showed which are, by their nature, fortunate, And which not so, and what the food of each, And what the hates, affections, social needs, Of all to one another,—taught what sign Of visceral lightness, coloured to a shade, May charm the genial gods, and what fair spots Commend the lung and liver. Burning so The limbs encased in fat, and the long chine, I led my mortals on to an art abstruse, And cleared their eyes to the image in the fire, Erst filmed in dark. Enough said now of this For the other helps of man hid underground, The iron and the brass, silver and gold, Can any dare affirm he found them out Before me? none, I know! unless he choose To lie in his vaunt. In one word learn the whole,— That all arts came to mortals from Prometheus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Give mortals now no inexpedient help, Neglecting thine own sorrow. I have hope still To see thee, breaking from the fetter here, Stand up as strong as Zeus. </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.This ends not thus, The oracular fate ordains. I must be bowed By infinite woes and pangs, to escape this chain Necessity is stronger than mine art. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Who holds the helm of that Necessity?[Pg 181] </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus. The threefold Fates and the unforgetting Furies. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. Is Zeus less absolute than these are? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Yea, And therefore cannot fly what is ordained. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus. What is ordained for Zeus, except to be A king for ever? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.'Tis too early yet For thee to learn it: ask no more. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus.Perhaps Thy secret may be something holy? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus.Turn To another matter: this, it is not time To speak abroad, but utterly to veil In silence. For by that same secret kept, I 'scape this chain's dishonour and its woe. </div> <div class="stanza"> Chorus, 1st Strophe. Never, oh never May Zeus, the all-giver, Wrestle down from his throne In that might of his own To antagonize mine! Nor let me delay As I bend on my way Toward the gods of the shrine[Pg 182] Where the altar is full Of the blood of the bull, Near the tossing brine Of Ocean my father. May no sin be sped in the word that is said, But my vow be rather Consummated, Nor evermore fail, nor evermore pine. </div> <div class="stanza"> 1st Antistrophe. 'Tis sweet to have Life lengthened out With hopes proved brave By the very doubt, Till the spirit enfold Those manifest joys which were foretold. But I thrill to behold Thee, victim doomed, By the countless cares And the drear despairs Forever consumed,— And all because thou, who art fearless now Of Zeus above, Didst overflow for mankind below With a free-souled, reverent love.[Pg 183] Ah friend, behold and see! What's all the beauty of humanity? Can it be fair? What's all the strength? is it strong? And what hope can they bear, These dying livers—living one day long? Ah, seest thou not, my friend, How feeble and slow And like a dream, doth go This poor blind manhood, drifted from its end? And how no mortal wranglings can confuse The harmony of Zeus? </div> <div class="stanza"> Prometheus, I have learnt these things From the sorrow in thy face. Another song did fold its wings Upon my lips in other days, When round the bath and round the bed The hymeneal chant instead I sang for thee, and smiled,— And thou didst lead, with gifts and vows, Hesione, my father's child, To be thy wedded spouse. </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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