Page:Prometheus Bound (Webster 1866).djvu/23



Yea thou indeed art bold, and batest nought

For all thine agonies,

But rather dost too freely speak thy thought.

But, for us, our minds are wrought

By a keen fear: with scared surmise

We scan thy destiny, nor can discern

Which were thy course to steer and gain

By holding it the end of thy long pain.

For ever stern

The son of Kronos keeps his purposed mind,

And still his ways pass us to find.

That Zeus is savage and meteth out right

By his will alone I know. But one day

Will his mood be soft,

When that blow to come hath smitten him down.

And then, with his stubborn wrath hushed calm,

Will he eagerly seek, from me eagerly giving,

A league and a loving bond.