Or Natural Theology in the Island
'Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.'1
['Will sprawl, now that the heat of day is best,
Flat on his belly in the pit's much mire,
With elbows wide, fists clenched to prop his chin.
1. Psalm 50.21. The speaker is God.
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CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS / 129 7
And, while he kicks both feet in the cool slush, 5 And feels about his spine small eft-things? course, water lizards Run in and out each arm, and make him laugh: And while above his head a pompion0 plant, pumpkin Coating the cave-top as a brow its eye, Creeps down to touch and tickle hair and beard, 10 And now a flower drops with a bee inside, And now a fruit to snap at, catch and crunch? He looks out o'er yon sea which sunbeams cross And recross till they weave a spider web (Meshes of fire, some great fish breaks at times) is And talks to his own self, howe'er he please, Touching that other, whom his dam? called God. mother Because to talk about Him, vexes?ha, Could He but know! and time to vex is now, When talk is safer than in wintertime. 20 Moreover Prosper and Miranda2 sleep In confidence he drudges at their task, And it is good to cheat the pair, and gibe,? insult them Letting the rank tongue blossom into speech.] Setebos, Setebos, and Setebos! 25 'Thinketh, He dwelleth i' the cold o' the moon. 'Thinketh He made it, with the sun to match, But not the stars; the stars came otherwise; Only made clouds, winds, meteors, such as that: Also this isle, what lives and grows thereon, 30 And snaky sea which rounds and ends the same. 'Thinketh, it came of being ill at ease: He hated that He cannot change His cold, Nor cure its ache. 'Hath spied an icy fish That longed to 'scape the rock-stream where she lived, 35 And thaw herself within the lukewarm brine O' the lazy sea her stream thrusts far amid, A crystal spike 'twixt two warm walls of wave;' Only, she ever sickened, found repulse At the other kind of water, not her life, 40 (Green-dense and dim-delicious, bred o' the sun) Flounced back from bliss she was not born to breathe, And in her old bounds buried her despair, Hating and loving warmth alike: so He. 'Thinketh, He made thereat the sun, this isle, 45 Trees and the fowls here, beast and creeping thing. Yon otter, sleek-wet, black, lithe as a leech; Yon auk,? one fire-eye in a ball of foam, seabird That floats and feeds; a certain badger brown He hath watched hunt with that slant white-wedge eye
2. Prospero's daughter. 3. I.e., the thin stream of cold water that is driven into the warm ocean like a spike between walls.
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129 8 / ROBERT BROWNING
so By moonlight; and the pie? with the long tongue
magpie
That pricks deep into oakwarts for a worm,
And says a plain word when she finds her prize,
But will not eat the ants; the ants themselves
That build a wall of seeds and settled stalks
55 About their hole?He made all these and more,
Made all we see, and us, in spite: how else?
He could not, Himself, make a second self
To be His mate; as well have made Himself:
He would not make what he mislikes or slights,
6o An eyesore to Him, or not worth His pains:
But did, in envy, listlessness, or sport, Make what Himself would fain,0 in a manner, be? gladly
Weaker in most points, stronger in a few,
Worthy, and yet mere playthings all the while,
65 Things He admires and mocks too?that is it.
Because, so brave, so better though they be,
It nothing skills if He begin to plague.4
Look now, I melt a gourd-fruit into mash,
Add honeycomb and pods, I have perceived, 70 Which bite like finches when they bill and kiss? Then, when froth rises bladdery,' drink up all,
bubbly
Quick, quick, till maggots scamper through my brain;
Last, throw me on my back i' the seeded thyme,
And wanton, wishing I were born a bird.
75 Put case, unable to be what I wish, I yet could make a live bird out of clay:
Would not I take clay, pinch my Caliban
Able to fly??for, there, see, he hath wings,
