Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/379



Kr. We are come to the far-bounding plain of earth,

To the Scythian way, to the unapproached solitude.

Hephaistus, orders must have thy attention,

Which the Father has enjoined on thee, this bold one

To the high-hanging rocks to bind

In indissoluble fetters of adamantine bonds.

For thy flower, the splendor of fire useful in all arts,

Stealing, he bestowed on mortals; and for such

A crime 't is fit he should give satisfaction to the gods;

That he may learn the tyranny of Zeus

To love, and cease from his man-loving ways. Heph. Kratos and Bia, your charge from Zeus

Already has its end, and nothing further in the way;

But I cannot endure to bind

A kindred god by force to a bleak precipice,—

Yet absolutely there 's necessity that I have courage for these things;

For it is hard the Father's words to banish.