Prometheus.

From high Olympus and the ætherial courts, Where mighty Zeus our angry king confirms The Fates' decrees and bends the wills of the gods, I come: and on the earth step with glad foot. This variegated ocean-floor of the air, The changeful circle of fair land, that lies Heaven's dial, sisterly mirror of night and day: The wide o'er-wandered plain, this nether world My truant haunt is, when from jealous eyes I steal, for hither 'tis I steal, and here Unseen repair my joy: yet not unseen Methinks, nor seen unguessed of him I seek. Rather by swath or furrow, or where the path Is walled with corn I am found, by trellised vine Or olive set in banks or orchard trim: I watch all toil and tilth, farm, field and fold, And taste the mortal joy; since not in heaven Among our easeful gods hath facile time A touch so keen, to wake such love of life As stirs the frail and careful being, who here, The king of sorrows, melancholy man, Bows at his labour, but in heart erect A god stands, nor for any gift of god Would barter his immortal-hearted prime. Could I but win this world from Zeus for mine, With not a god to vex my happy rule, I would inhabit here and leave high heaven: So much I love it and its race of men, Even as he hates them, hates both them, and me For loving what he hates, and would destroy me, Outcast in the scorn of all his cringing crew, For daring but to save what he would slay: And me must first destroy. Thus he denieth My heart's wish, thus my counsel sets at naught, Which him saved once, when all at stake he stood Uprisen in rebellion to overthrow The elderseated Titans, for I that day Gave him the counsels which his foes despised. Unhappy they, who had still their blissful seats Preserved and their Olympian majesty, Had they been one with me. Alas, my kin! But he, when he had taken the throne and chained His foes in wasteful Tartarus, said no more Where is Prometheus our wise counsellor? What saith Prometheus? tell us, O Prometheus, What Fate requires! but waxing confident And wanton, as a youth first tasting power, He wrecked the timeless monuments of heaven, The witness of the wisdom of the gods, And making all about him new, beyond Determined to destroy the race of men, And that create afresh or else have none. Then his vain mind imagined a device, And at his bidding all the opposèd winds Blew, and the scattered clouds and furlèd snows, From every part of heaven together flying, He with brute hands in huge disorder heaped: They with the winds' weight and his angry breath Were thawed: in cataracts they fell, and earth In darkness deep and whelmèd tempest lay, Drowned 'neath the waters. Yet on the mountain-tops Some few escaped, and some, thus warned by me, Made shift to live in vessels which outrode The season and the fury of the flood. And when his rain was spent and from clear skies Zeus looking down upon the watery world, Beheld these few, the remnant of mankind, Who yet stood up and breathed; he next withdrew The seeds of fire, that else had still lain hid In withered branch and the blue flakes of flint For man to exact and use, but these withdrawn, Man with the brutes degraded would be man No more; and so the tyrant was content. But I, despised again, again upheld The weak, and pitying them sent sweet Hope, Bearer of dreams, enchantress fond and kind, From heaven descending on the unhindered rays Of every star, to cheer with visions fair Their unamending pains. And now this day Behold I come bearing the seal of all Which Hope had promised: for within this reed A prisoner I bring them stolen from heaven, The flash of mastering fire, and it have borne So swift to earth, that when yon noontide sun Rose from the sea at morning I was by, And unperceived of Hêlios plunged the point I' the burning axle, and withdrew a tongue Of breathing flame, which lives to leap on earth For man the father of all fire to come. And hither have I brought it even to Argos Unto king Inachus, him having chosen Above all mortals to receive my gift: For he is hopeful, careful, wise, and brave. He first, when first the floods left bare the land, Grew warm with enterprise, and gathered men Together, and disposed their various tasks For common weal combined; for soon were seen The long straight channels dwindling on the plain, Which slow from stagnant pool and wide morass The pestilent waters to the rivers bore: Then in the ruined dwellings and old tombs He dug, unbedding from the wormèd ooze Vessels and tools of trade and husbandry; Wherewith, all seasonable works restored, Oil made he and wine anew, and taught mankind To live not brutally though without fire, Tending their flocks and herds and weaving wool, Living on fruit and milk and shepherds' fare, Till time should bring back flame to smithy and hearth, Or Zeus relent. Now at these gates I stand, At this mid hour, when Inachus comes forth To offer sacrifice unto his foe. For never hath his faithful zeal forborne To pay the power, though hard, that rules the world The smokeless sacrifice; which first to-day Shall smoke, and rise at heaven in flame to brave The baffled god. See here a servant bears For the cold altar ceremonial wood: My shepherd's cloak will serve me for disguise.