Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/209

Rh And by thy side, on rocky land,

Thus gently we alight and stand,

Willing, from end to end, to know

Thine history of woe.

[The alight from their winged cars. Enter, mounted on a griffin.

Thus, over leagues and leagues of space

I come, Prometheus, to thy place—

By will alone, not rein, I guide

The wingèd thing on which I ride;

And much, be sure, I mourn thy case—

Kinship is Pity's bond, I trow;

And, wert thou not akin, I vow

None other should have more than thou

Of my compassion's grace!

'Tis said, and shall be proved; no skill

Have I to gloze and feign goodwill!

Name but some mode of helpfulness,

And thou wilt in a trice confess

That I, Oceanus, am best

Of all thy friends, and trustiest.

Ho, what a sight of marvel! what, thou too

Comest to contemplate my pains, and darest—

(Yet how, I wot not!) leaving far behind

The circling tide, thy namefellow, and those

Rock-arched, self-hollowed caverns—thus to come

Unto this land, whose womb bears iron ore?

Art come to see my lot, resent with me

The ills I bear? Well, gaze thy fill! behold