Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/51

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And blunted in her purpose, and impelled

To choose the lesser evil, and prefer

The wearing on her cheeks the coward's shame,

To blood-guilt on her hands. She shall give birth

To a royal race in Argos—tedious speech

Were needed to speak clearly and at large

Of these things—'tis enough that, from this seed,

Shall spring the strong He—famous with the bow,

Whose arm shall break my fetters off! Behold,

My mother Themis, that old Titaness,

Instructed me in this oracular truth;

But how and when, I should be long to speak,

And thou, in hearing, wouldst not gain at all.

Io.Eleleu, eleleu!

How the spasm and the pain,

And the fire on the brain,

Strike, burning me through!

How the sting of the curse, all aflame as it flew,

Pricks me onward again!

How my heart, in its terror, is spurning my breast,—

And my eyes, like the wheels of a chariot, roll round,—

I am whirled from my course, to the east, to the west,

In the whirlwind of frenzy all madly inwound—

And my mouth is unbridled for anguish and hate,

And my words beat in vain, in wild storms of unrest,

On the sea of my desolate fate.

Oh! wisest of the wise is he

Who first within his spirit knew,