Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/196

190 Can fix no yoke unless the neck agree; And thine is like the lion's when the thick Dews shudder from it, and no man would be The stroker of his mane, much less would prick His nostril with a reed. When nations roar Like lions, who shall tame them, and defraud Of the due pasture by the river-shore? Roar, therefore! shake your dew-laps dry abroad. The amphitheatre with open door Leads back upon the benches who applaud The last spear-thruster!

Yet the Heavens forbid That we should call on passion to confront The brutal with the brutal, and, amid This ripening world, suggest a lion-hunt And lion-vengeance for the wrongs men did And do now, though the spears are getting blunt. We only call, because the sight and proof Of lion-strength hurts nothing; and to show A lion-heart, and measure paw with hoof, Helps something, even, and will instruct a foe Well as the onslaught, how to stand aloof! Or else the world gets past the mere brute blow Given or taken. Children use the fist Until they are of age to use the brain: And so we needed Cæsars to assist Man's justice, and Napoleons to explain God's counsel, when a point was nearly missed, Until our generations should attain Christ's stature nearer. Not that we, alas! Attain already; but a single inch Will help to look down on the swordsman's pass,