eyed charioteer, urging their flight. Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars:
135 Others with burning eyes lean forth, and drink With eager lips the wind of their own speed, As if the thing they loved fled on before, And now?even now they clasped it; their bright locks Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all Sweep onward.?
140 DEMOGORGON These are the immortal Hours Of whom thou didst demand.?One waits for thee.
ASIA A Spirit with a dreadful countenance Checks its dark chariot by the craggy gulph. Unlike thy brethren, ghastly charioteer,
145 What art thou? whither wouldst thou bear me? Speak!
SPIRIT I am the shadow of a destiny More dread than is my aspect?ere yon planet Has set, the Darkness which ascends with me Shall wrap in lasting night Heaven's kingless throne.
ASIA What meanest thou? 150 PANTHEA That terrible shadow5 floats Up from its throne, as may the lurid0 smoke red-glaring
4. Demogorgon's answer is a gesture: he points to 5. Demogorgon (the 'Darkness' of line 148), who the approaching chariots ('Cars'). is ascending (lines 150?55) to dethrone Jupiter.
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80 6 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Of earthquake-ruined cities o'er the sea.? Lo! it ascends the Car . . . the coursers fly Terrified; watch its path among the stars Blackening the night!
155 ASIA Thus I am answered?strange!
PANTHEA See, near the verge0 another chariot stays; horizon An ivory shell inlaid with crimson fire Which comes and goes within its sculptured rim Of delicate strange tracery?the young Spirit
160 That guides it, has the dovelike eyes of hope. How its soft smiles attract the soul!?as light Lures winged insects6 through the lampless air.
SPIRIT
My coursers are fed with the lightning, They drink of the whirlwind's stream
165 And when the red morning is brightning They bathe in the fresh sunbeam; They have strength for their swiftness, I deem:
Then ascend with me, daughter of Ocean.
I desire?and their speed makes night kindle; 170 I fear?they outstrip the Typhoon;
Ere the cloud piled on Atlas7 can dwindle We encircle the earth and the moon: We shall rest from long labours at noon:
Then ascend with me, daughter of Ocean.
SCENE
5?The Car -pauses within a Cloud on the Top of a snowy Mountain, ASIA,
PANTHEA, and the SPIRIT OF THE HOUR.
SPIRIT
On the brink of the night and the morning My coursers are wont to respire,8 But the Earth has just whispered a warning That their flight must be swifter than fire: 5 They shall drink the hot speed of desire!
ASIA Thou breathest on their nostrils?but my breath
Would give them swifter speed. SPIRIT Alas, it could not. PANTHEA O Spirit! pause and tell whence is the light
Which fills the cloud? the sun is yet unrisen.
io SPIRIT The sun will rise not until noon.9?Apollo Is held in Heaven by wonder?and the light Which fills this vapour, as the aerial hue Of fountain-gazing roses fills the water,
6. The ancient image of the soul, or psyche, was a regarded as so high that it supported the heavens, moth. The chariot described here will carry Asia to 8. Catch their breath. a reunion with Prometheus. 9. The time of the reunion of Prometheus and 7. A mountain in North Africa that the Greeks Asia.
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PROMETHEUS UNBOUND, ACT 1 / 80 7
Flows from thy mighty sister. PANTHEA Yes, I feel. . . ASIA What is it with thee, sister? Thou art pale. PANTHEA How thou art changed! I dare not look on thee;
I feel, but see thee not. I scarce endure The radiance of thy beauty.1 Some good change Is working in the elements which suffer Thy presence thus unveiled.?The Nereids tell That on the day when the clear hyaline0 glassy sea Was cloven at thy uprise, and thou didst stand Within a veined shell,2 which floated on Over the calm floor of the chrystal sea, Among the /Egean isles, and by the shores Which bear thy name, love, like the atmosphere Of the sun's fire filling the living world, Burst from thee, and illumined Earth and Heaven And the deep ocean and the sunless caves, And all that dwells within them; till grief cast Eclipse upon the soul from which it came: Such art thou now, nor is it I alone, Thy sister, thy companion, thine own chosen one, But the whole world which seeks thy sympathy. Hearest thou not sounds i' the air which speak the love Of all articulate beings? Feelest thou not The inanimate winds enamoured of thee??List! [Music.]
ASIA Thy words are sweeter than aught else but his Whose echoes they are?yet all love is sweet, Given or returned; common as light is love And its familiar voice wearies not ever. Like the wide Heaven, the all-sustaining air, It makes the reptile equal to the God . . . They who inspire it most are fortunate As I am now; but those who
