In all which was served up to him, until 190 Through that which had been death to many men, He held his dialogues; and they did teach To him the book of Night was open'd wide, IX. My dream was past; it had no further change. Of these two creatures should be thus traced out To end in madness-both in misery. 200 PROMETHEUS. I. TITAN! to whose immortal eyes Seen in their sad reality, Were not as things that gods despise ; What was thy pity's recompense? A silent suffering, and intense; The rock, the vulture, and the chain, Which speaks but in its loneliness, Until its voice is echoless. II. Titan! to thee the strife was given And the inexorable Heaven, The ruling principle of Hate, Which for its pleasure doth create Refused thee even the boon to die: Was thine—and thou hast borne it well. And evil dread so ill dissembled That in his hand the lightnings trembled. III. Thy Godlike crime was to be kind, The sum of human wretchedness, Still in thy patient energy, In the endurance, and repulse Of thine impenetrable Spirit, Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit: Thou art a symbol and a sign To Mortals of their fate and force; Like thee, Man is in part divine, A troubled stream from a pure source; His wretchedness, and his resistance, And a firm will, and a deep sense, VOL. V. S |