Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/398

356

And ne'er be melted out.

'T is something sweet with bold

Hopes the long life to

Extend, in bright

Cheerfulness the cherishing spirit.

But I shudder, thee beholding

By a myriad sufferings tormented.

For, not fearing Zeus,

In thy private mind thou dost regard

Mortals too much, Prometheus.

Come, though a thankless

Favor, friend, say where is any strength,

From ephemerals any help? Saw you not

The powerless inefficiency,

Dream-like, in which the blind

Race of mortals are entangled?

Never counsels of mortals

May transgress the harmony of Zeus.

I learned these things looking on

Thy destructive fate, Prometheus.

For different to me did this strain come,

And that which round thy baths

And couch I hymned,

With the design of marriage, when my father's child

With bridal gifts persuading, thou didst lead

Hesione the partner of thy bed.

Io. What earth, what race, what being shall I say is this

I see in bridles of rock