230 Yea, by that law, another race may drive
Our conquerors to mourn as we do now.
Have ye beheld the young God of the
Seas,1

My dispossessor? Have ye seen his face?
Have ye beheld his chariot, foam'd along
235 By noble winged creatures he hath made?
I saw him on the calmed waters scud,
With such a glow of beauty in his eyes,
That it enforc'd me to bid sad farewell
To all my empire: farewell sad I took,
240 And hither came, to see how dolorous fate
Had wrought upon ye; and how I might
best

Give consolation in this woe extreme.
Receive the truth, and let it be your balm."

Whether through poz'd2 conviction, or
disdain,

245 They guarded silence, when Oceanus

Left murmuring, what deepest thought can
tell?

But so it was, none answer'd for a space,
Save one whom none regarded, Clymene;
And yet she answer'd not, only com-

plain 'd,

The dull shell's echo, from a bowery strand 275 Just opposite, an island of the sea,

There came enchantment with the shifting wind,

That did both brown and keep alive my

ears.

I threw my shell away upon the sand,
And a wave fill'd it, as my sense was fill'd.
280 With that new blissful golden melody.
A living death was in each gush of sounds,
Each family of rapturous hurried notes,
That fell, one after one, yet all at once,
Like pearl beads dropping sudden from
their string:

285 And then another, then another strain,
Each like a dove leaving its olive perch,
With music wing'd instead of silent
plumes,

To hover round my head, and make me sick Of joy and grief at once. Grief overcame, 290 And I was stopping up my frantic ears, When, past all hindrance of my trembling

250 With hectic lips, and eyes up-looking mild, 295
Thus wording timidly among the fierce:
"O Father, I am here the simplest voice,
And all my knowledge is that joy is gone,
And this thing woe crept in among our
hearts,

255 There to remain forever, as I fear:

I would not bode of evil, if I thought

So weak a creature could turn off the help 300
Which by just right should come of mighty
Gods;

Yet let me tell my sorrow, let me tell
260 Of what I heard, and how it made me weep,
And know that we had parted from all
hope.

I stood upon a shore, a pleasant shore, Where a sweet clime was breathed from a land

Of fragrance, quietness, and trees, and flowers.

265 Full of calm joy it was, as I of grief;

Too full of joy, and soft delicious warmth;
So that I felt a movement in my heart
To chide, and to reproach that solitude
With songs of misery, music of our woes;
270 And sat me down, and took a mouthed
shell3

And murmur'd into it, and made melody-
O melody no more! for while I sang,
And with poor skill let pass into the breeze

hands,

Of huge Enceladus swallow'd it in wrath: 305 The ponderous syllables, like sullen waves In the half-glutted hollows of reef-rocks, Came booming thus, while still upon his

arm

He lean'd; not rising, from supreme contempt.

"Or shall we listen to the over-wise,
310 Or to the over-foolish, giant Gods?

Not thunderbolt on thunderbolt, till all
That rebel Jove's whole armory were spent,
Not world on world upon these shoulders
piled,

Could agonize me more than baby-words 315 In midst of this dethronement horrible. Speak! roar! shout! yell! ye sleepy Titans

all.

Do ye forget the blows, the buffets vile?
Are ye not smitten by a youngling arm?

Those days, all innocent of scathing war, 380
When all the fair Existences of heaven
Came open-eyed to guess what we would
speak:-

That was before our brows were taught to
frown,

340 Before our lips knew else but solemn 385 sounds;

That was before we knew the winged thing,
Victory, might be lost, or might be won.
And be ye mindful that Hyperion,
Our brightest brother, still is undisgraced-
345 Hyperion, lo! his radiance is here!"

All eyes were on Enceladus's face,
And they beheld, while still Hyperion's

90 And then upon the grass I sit, and moan, 135 Apollo shriek 'd;-and lo! from all his Like one who once had wings.-O why

should I

Feel curs'd and thwarted, when the liegeless air

Yields to my step aspirant? why should I Spurn the green turf as hateful to my feet? 95 Goddess benign, point forth some unknown thing:

Are there not other regions than this isle? What are the stars? There is the sun, the sun!

And the most patient brilliance of the moon!

And stars by thousands! Point me out the
way

100 To any one particular beauteous star,
And I will fit into it with my lyre,
And make its silvery splendor pant with
bliss.

I have heard the cloudy thunder: Where
is power?

Whose hand, whose essence, what divinity 105 Makes this alarum in the elements,

While I here idle listen on the shores
In fearless yet in aching ignorance?
O tell me, lonely Goddess, by thy harp,
That waileth every morn and eventide,
110 Tell me why thus I rave, about these

groves!

Mute thou remainest-mute! yet I can read
A wondrous lesson in thy silent face:
Knowledge enormous makes a God of me.
Names, deeds, gray legends, dire events,
rebellions,

115 Majesties, sovran voices, agonies,

Creations and destroyings, all at once
Pour into the wide hollows of my brain,
And deify me, as if some blithe wine
Or bright elixir peerless I had drunk,

120 And so become immortal."-Thus the God,
While his enkindling eyes, with level glance
Beneath his white soft temples, steadfast

limbs

Celestial

Of pale immortal death, and with a pang 25
As hot as death's is chill, with fierce con-
vulse

130 Die into life: so young Apollo anguish 'd:
His very hair, his golden tresses famed
Kept undulation round his eager neck,
During the pain Mnemosyne upheld
Her arms as one who prophesied. - At
length

cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may

find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing
wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies,

while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its

twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost

keep.

Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours
by hours.