Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/113

 Over the mountain battlements; the sky Being deep-stain'd with hues fantastical, Red like to blood, and yellow like to fire, And black like plumes at funerals; overhead You might behold the lightning faintly gleam Amid the clouds which thrill and gape aside, And straight again shut up their solemn jaws, As if to interpose between Heaven's wrath And Earth's despair. Interposition brief! Darkness is gathering out her mighty pall Above us, and the pent-up rain is loosed, Down trampling in its fierce delirium.

Was not my spirit gladden'd, as with wine, To hear the iron rain, and view the mark Of battle on the banner of the clouds? Did I not hearken for the battle-cry, And rush along the bowing woods to meet