O golden hair that like a miser's treas- | And by my cunning arguments persuade ure In its abundance overflows the measure! O graceful form, that cloudlike floatest on With the soft, undulating gait of one Who moveth as if motion were a pleas ure! By what name shall I call thee? Nymph or Muse, Callirrhoë or Urania? Some sweet name Whose every syllable is a caress Would best befit thee; but I cannot choose, Nor do I care to choose; for still the same, Nameless or named, will be thy loveliness. him To marry her. What mischief lies concealed In this design I know not; but I know Who thinks of marrying hath already taken One step upon the road to penitence. Such embassies delight me. Forth I launch On the sustaining air, nor fear to fall Like Icarus, nor swerve aside like him Who drove amiss Hyperion's fiery steeds. I sink, I fly! The yielding element Folds itself round about me like an arm, And holds me as a mother holds her child. III. Are my companions; my designs and labors And aspirations are my only friends. HERMES. Decide not rashly. The decision made Can never be recalled. The Gods implore not, Plead not, solicit not; they only offer Choice and occasion, which once being passed Return no more. Dost thou accept the gift? PROMETHEUS. No gift of theirs, in whatsoever shape PANDORA. This new toy and fascination, IV. THE AIR. HERMES, returning to Olympus. As lonely as the tower that he inhabits, As firm and cold as are the crags about him, Prometheus stands. The thunderbolts of Zeus Let us go hence. I will not stay. Alone can move him; but the tender HERMES. We leave thee to thy vacant dreams, and The silence and the solitude of thought, CHORUS OF THE FATES. CLOTHO. How the Titan, the defiant, LACHESIS. Sorely tried and sorely tempted, ATROPOS. Tempt no more the noble schemer; heart They do but answer to the love in thine, Yet secretly I wonder thou shouldst Lifted the lid? love me. Thou knowest me not. EPIMETHEUS. EPIMETHEUS. "T is a mystery. PANDORA. Hast thou never EPIMETHEUS. The oracle forbids. Safely concealed there from all mortal eyes Perhaps I know thee better Than had I known thee longer. Yet it Forever sleeps the secret of the Gods. Seek not to know what they have hidden from thee, Till they themselves reveal it. PANDORA. Thou dost not need a teacher. They go out. CHORUS OF THE EUMENIDES. What the Immortals Silence conceals it; With shafts of their splendors With useless endeavor, His stone up the mountain! VI. IN THE GARDEN. EPIMETHEUS. YON Snow-white cloud that sails sublime in ether EPIMETHEUS. Whence knowest thou these stories? PANDORA. Hermes taught me ; Is but the sovereign Zeus, who like a He told me all the history of the Gods. |