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PROMETHEU S UNBOUND , AC T 1 / 78 1 so And had run mute 'mid shrieks of slaughter Through a city and a solitude! 85THIRD VOICE: from the Air I had clothed since Earth uprose Its wastes in colours not their own, And oft had my serene repose Been cloven by many a rending groan. 90FOURTH VOICE: from theWe had soared beneath these mountains Unresting ages;?nor had thunder Nor yon Volcano's flaming fountains Nor any power above or under Ever made us mute with wonder! Whirlwinds FIRST VOICE But never bowed our snowy crest As at the voice of thine unrest. 95SECOND VOICE Never such a sound before To the Indian waves we bore.? A pilot asleep on the howling sea Leaped up from the deck in agony And heard, and cried, 'Ah, woe is me!' And died as mad as the wild waves be. IOOTHIRD VOICE By such dread words from Earth to Heaven My still realm was never riven; When its wound was closed, there stood Darkness o'er the Day, like blood. 105FOURTH VOICE And we shrank back?for dreams of ruin To frozen caves our flight pursuing Made us keep silence?thus?and thus? Though silence is as hell to us. 110THE EARTH The tongueless Caverns of the craggy hills Cried 'Misery!' then; the hollow Heaven replied, 'Misery!' And the Ocean's purple waves, Climbing the land, howled to the lashing winds. And the pale nations heard it,?'Misery!' 115PROMETHEUS I hear a sound of voices?not the voice Which I gave forth.?Mother,0 thy sons and thouScorn him, without whose all-enduring will Beneath the fierce omnipotence of Jove Earth
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78 2 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Both they and thou had vanished like thin mist Unrolled on the morning wind!?Know ye not me, The Titan, he who made his agony The barrier to your else all-conquering foe?
120 O rock-embosomed lawns and snow-fed streams Now seen athwart frore vapours2 deep below, Through whose o'er-shadowing woods I wandered once With Asia, drinking life from her loved eyes; Why scorns the spirit which informs ye, now
125 To commune with me? me alone, who checked? As one who checks a fiend-drawn charioteer? The falshood and the force of Him who reigns Supreme, and with the groans of pining slaves Fills your dim glens and liquid wildernesses? Why answer ye not, still? brethren!
THE EARTH
130 They dare not.
PROMETHEUS
Who dares? for I would hear that curse again. . . . Ha, what an awful whisper rises up! 'Tis scarce like sound, it tingles through the frame As lightning tingles, hovering ere it strike.?
135 Speak, Spirit! from thine inorganic voice I only know that thou art moving near And love. How cursed I him?
THE EARTH
How canst thou hear Who knowest not the language of the dead?
PROMETHEUS
Thou art a living spirit?speak as they.
THE EARTH
140 I dare not speak like life, lest Heaven's felF King cruel Should hear, and link me to some wheel of pain More torturing than the one whereon I roll.? Subtle thou art and good, and though the Gods Hear not this voice?yet thou art more than God
145 Being wise and kind?earnestly hearken now.?
PROMETHEUS
Obscurely through my brain like shadows dim Sweep awful? thoughts, rapid and thick.?I feel axve-inspiring Faint, like one mingled in entwining love, Yet 'tis not pleasure.
2. Through frosty vapors.
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PROMETHEU S UNBOUND , AC T 1 / 78 3 THE EARTH No, thou canst not hear: 150 Thou art immortal, and this tongue is known Only to those who die . . . PROMETHEUS And what art thou, O melancholy Voice? THE EARTH I am the Earth, Thy mother, she within whose stony veins To the last fibre of the loftiest tree 155 Whose thin leaves trembled in the frozen air Joy ran, as blood within a living frame, When thou didst from her bosom, like a cloud Of glory, arise, a spirit of keen joy! And at thy voice her pining sons uplifted 160 Their prostrate brows from the polluting dust And our almighty Tyrant with fierce dread Grew pale?until his thunder chained thee here.? Then?see those million worlds which burn and roll Around us: their inhabitants beheld 165 My sphered light wane in wide Heaven; the sea Was lifted by strange tempest, and new fire From earthquake-rifted mountains of bright snow Shook its portentous hair beneath Heaven's frown; Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains; 170 Blue thistles bloomed in cities; foodless toads Within voluptuous chambers panting crawled; When Plague had fallen on man and beast and worm, And Famine,?and black blight on herb and tree, And in the corn and vines and meadow-grass 175 Teemed ineradicable poisonous weeds Draining their growth, for my wan breast was dry With grief,?and the thin air, my breath, was stained With the contagion of a mother's hate Breathed on her child's destroyer?aye, I heard 180 Thy curse, the which if thou rememberest not Yet my innumerable seas and streams, Mountains and caves and winds, and yon wide Air And the inarticulate people of the dead Preserve, a treasured spell. We meditate 185 In secret joy and hope those dreadful words But dare not speak them. PROMETHEUS Venerable Mother! All else who live and suffer take from thee Some comfort; flowers and fruits and happy sounds
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78 4 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
And love, though fleeting; these may not be mine. 190 But mine own words, I pray, deny me not.
THE EARTH
They shall be told.?Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster,3 my dead child, Met his own image walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw.
