Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/735

Rh He chopped into the caldron to be boiled.

And I, with the tears raining from my eyes,

Stood near the Cyclops, ministering to him;

The rest, in the recesses of the cave,

Clung to the rock like bats, bloodless with fear.

When he was filled with my companions' flesh,

He threw himself upon the ground and sent

A loathsome exhalation from his maw.

Then a divine thought came to me. I filled

The cup of Maron, and I offered him

To taste, and said:—'Child of the Ocean God,

Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,

The exultation and the joy of Bacchus.'

He, satiated with his unnatural food,

Received it, and at one draught drank it off,

And taking my hand, praised me:—'Thou hast given

A sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest.'

And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filled

Another cup, well knowing that the wine

Would wound him soon and take a sure revenge.

And the charm fascinated him, and I

Plied him cup after cup, until the drink

Had warmed his entrails, and he sang aloud

In concert with my wailing fellow-seamen

A hideous discord—and the cavern rung.

I have stolen out, so that if you will

You may achieve my safety and your own.

But say, do you desire, or not, to fly

This uncompanionable man, and dwell

As was your wont among the Grecian Nymphs

Within the fanes of your belovèd God?

Your father there within agrees to it,

But he is weak and overcome with wine,

And caught as if with bird-lime by the cup,

He claps his wings and crows in doting joy.

You who are young escape with me, and find

Bacchus your ancient friend; unsuited he

To this rude Cyclops.

Oh my dearest friend,

That I could see that day, and leave for ever.

The impious Cyclops.

Listen then what a punishment I have

For this fell monster, how secure a flight

From your hard servitude.

O sweeter far

Than is the music of an Asian lyre

Would be the news of Polypheme destroyed.

Delighted with the Bacchic drink he goes

To call his brother Cyclops—who inhabit

 416 take] grant (as alternative) B.

