79 2 / PERC Y BYSSH E SHELLE Y 455FIRST FURY We are the ministers of pain and fear And disappointment and mistrust and hate And clinging' crime; and as lean dogs pursue Through wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn, We track all things that weep and bleed and live When the great King betrays them to our will. clasping 460PROMETHEUS 0 many fearful natures in one name! 1 know ye, and these lakes and echoes know The darkness and the clangour of your wings. But why more hideous than your loathed selves Gather ye up in legions from the deep? SECOND FURY We knew not that?Sisters, rejoice, rejoice! PROMETHEUS Can aught exult in its deformity? SECOND FURY The beauty of delight makes lovers glad Gazing on one another?so are we. As from the rose which the pale priestess kneels To gather for her festal0 crown of flowersThe aerial crimson falls, flushing her cheek? So from our victim's destined agony The shade which is our form invests us round, Else we are shapeless as our Mother Night. festive PROMETHEUS I laugh0 your power and his who sent you hereTo lowest scorn.?Pour forth the cup of pain. mock 475FIRS T FURY Thou thinkest we will rend thee bone from bone? And nerve from nerve, working like fire within? PROMETHEUS Pain is my element as hate is thine; Ye rend me now: I care not. SECOND FURY Dost imagine We will but laugh into thy lidless eyes? 480PROMETHEUS I weigh0 not what ye do, but what ye sufferBeing evil. Cruel was the Power which called You, or aught else so wretched, into light. consider
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PROMETHEU S UNBOUND , AC T 1 / 79 3 THIRD FURY Thou think'st we will live through thee, one by one, Like animal life, and though we can obscure not 485 The soul which burns within, that we will dwell Beside it, like a vain loud multitude Vexing the self-content of wisest men? That we will be dread thought beneath thy brain And foul desire round thine astonished heart 490 And blood within thy labyrinthine veins Crawling like agony. PROMETHEUS Why, ye are thus now; Yet am I king over myself, and rule The torturing and conflicting throngs within As Jove rules you when Hell grows mutinous. CHORUS OF FURIES 495 From the ends of the Earth, from the ends of the Earth, Where the night has its grave and the morning its birth, Come, Come, Come! O yet who shake hills with the scream of your mirth When cities sink howling in ruin, and ye 500 Who with wingless footsteps trample the Sea, And close upon Shipwreck and Famine's track Sit chattering with joy on the foodless wrack; Come, Come, Come! Leave the bed, low, cold and red, 505 Strewed beneath a nation dead; Leave the hatred?as in ashes Fire is left for future burning,? It will burst in bloodier flashes When ye stir it, soon returning; 510 Leave the self- contempt implanted In young spirits sense-enchanted, Misery's yet unkindled fuel; Leave Hell's secrets half- unchanted To the maniac dreamer: cruel 515 More than ye can be with hate, Is he with fear. Come, Come, Come! We are steaming up from Hell's wide gate And we burthen the blasts of the atmosphere, 520 But vainly we toil till ye come here. IONE Sister, I hear the thunder of new wings. PANTHEA These solid mountains quiver with the sound Even as the tremulous air:?their shadows make The space within my plumes more black than night.
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79 4 / PERC Y BYSSH E SHELLE Y FIRST FURY Your call was as a winged car Driven on whirlwinds fast and far; It rapt? us from red gulphs of war? carried SECOND FURY From wide cities, famine-wasted? THIRD FURY Groans half heard, and blood untasted? FOURTH FURY Kingly conclaves, stern and cold, Where blood with gold is bought and sold? FIFTH FURY From the furnace, white and hot, In which? 535A FURY Speak not?whisper not! I know all that ye would tell, But to speak might break the spell Which must bend the Invincible, The stern of thought; He yet defies the deepest power of Hell. Tear the veil!? A FURY It is torn! ANOTHER FURY 540545550555CHORUS The pale stars of the morn Shine on a misery dire to be borne. Dost thou faint, mighty Titan? We laugh thee to scorn. Dost thou boast the clear knowledge thou waken'dst for man? Then was kindled within him a thirst which outran Those perishing waters: a thirst of fierce fever, Hope, love, doubt, desire?which consume him forever. One? came forth, of gentle worth, Smiling on the sanguine earth; His words outlived him, like swift poison Withering up truth, peace and pity. Look! where round the wide horizon Many a million-peopled city Vomits smoke in the bright air.? Hark that outcry of despair! 'Tis his mild and gentle ghost Wailing for the faith he kindled. Christ
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PROMETHEUS UNBOUND, ACT 1 / 79 5
Look again,?the flames almost To a glow-worm's lamp have dwindled: The survivors round the embers Gather in dread.
560 Joy, Joy, Joy! Past ages crowd on thee, but each one remembers, And the future is dark, and the present is spread Like a pillow of thorns for thy slumberless head.
SEMICHORUS I
Drops of bloody agony flow
565 From his white and quivering brow. Grant a little respite now? See! a disenchanted Nation9 Springs like day from desolation; To truth its state, is dedicate,
570 And Freedom leads it forth, her mate; A legioned band of linked brothers Whom Love calls children?
SEMICHORUS II
'Tis another's? See how kindred murder kin! Tis the vintage-time for Death and Sin:
575 Blood, like new wine, bubbles within Till Despair smothers The struggling World?which slaves and tyrants win.
[All the Furies vanish, except one.]
IONE
Hark, sister! what a low yet dreadful groan Quite unsuppressed is tearing up the heart
580 Of the good Titan?as storms tear the deep And beasts hear the Sea moan in inland caves. Darest thou observe how the fiends torture him?
PANTHEA
Alas, I looked forth twice, but will no more.
IONE
What didst thou see?
PANTHEA A woeful sight?a youth0 Christ With patient looks nailed to a crucifix.
IONE
What next?
