Page:Miscellanies - With a biographical sketch by Ralph Waldo Emerson and a general index to the writings. -- by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/332

312 Nor offend with words,

But in me this remain

And ne'er be melted out.

'T is something sweet with bold

Hopes the long life to

Extend, in bright

Cheerfulness the cherishing spirit.

But I shudder, thee beholding

By a myriad sufferings tormented.

For, not fearing Zeus,

In thy private mind thou dost regard

Mortals too much, Prometheus.

Come, though a thankless

Favor, friend, say where is any strength,

From ephemerals any help? Saw you not

The powerless inefficiency,

Dream-like, in which the blind

Race of mortals are entangled?

Never counsels of mortals

May transgress the harmony of Zeus.

I learned these things looking on

Thy destructive fate, Prometheus.

For different to me did this strain come,

And that which round thy baths

And couch I hymned,

With the design of marriage, when my father's child

With bridal gifts persuading, thou didst lead

Hesione the partner of thy bed.