Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/739

Rh  Guest, take it;—you pour out the wine for me.

The wine is well accustomed to my hand.

Pour out the wine!

I pour; only be silent.

Silence is a hard task to him who drinks.

Take it and drink it off; leave not a dreg.

Oh, that the drinker died with his own draught!

Papai! the vine must be a sapient plant.

If you drink much after a mighty feast,

Moistening your thirsty maw, you will sleep well;

If you leave aught, Bacchus will dry you up.

Ho! ho! I can scarce rise. What pure delight!

The heavens and earth appear to whirl about

Confusedly. I see the throne of Jove

And the clear congregation of the Gods.

Now if the Graces tempted me to kiss

I would not—for the loveliest of them all

I would not leave this Ganymede.

Polypheme,

I am the Ganymede of Jupiter.

By Jove, you are; I bore you off from Dardanus.

Come, boys of Bacchus, children of high race,

This man within is folded up in sleep,

And soon will vomit flesh from his fell maw;

The brand under the shed thrusts out its smoke,

No preparation needs, but to burn out

The monster's eye;—but bear yourselves like men.

We will have courage like the adamant rock,

All things are ready for you here; go in,

Before our father shall perceive the noise.

Vulcan, Aetnean king! burn out with fire

The shining eye of this thy neighbouring monster!

And thou, O Sleep, nursling of gloomy Night,

Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast,

And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,

Returning from their famous Trojan toils,

To perish by this man, who cares not either

For God or mortal; or I needs must think

That Chance is a supreme divinity,

And things divine are subject to her power.

Soon a crab the throat will seize

Of him who feeds upon his guest,

Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes

In revenge of such a feast!

A great oak stump now is lying

In the ashes yet undying.

 606 God-hated 1824; God-hating (as an alternative) B.

