Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/16

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That I must dare it,—and our Zeus commands

With word as heavy as bolts—inevitable!

Ho!—lofty 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!—where thy beauty's flower,

Scorched in the sun's clear heat, shall fade away,

And night come up with garniture of stars

To comfort thee with shadow, and the sun

Disperse, with retrickt beams, the morning frosts;

And 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!—for 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.

Strength. Be it so.

Why loiter in vain pity? Why not hate

A god the gods hate?—one too who betrayed

Thy glory unto men?

Hephæstus. An awful thing

Is kinship joined to friendship.

Strength. Grant it be;

Is disobedience to the Father's word

A possible thing? Dost quail not more for that?

Hephæstus. Thou, at least, art a stern one! ever bold!