VIII. A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. Through that which had been death to many men, He held his dialogues; and they did teach IX. My dream was past; it had no further change. Of these two creatures should be thus traced out To end in madness—both in misery. PROMETHEUS. I. TITIAN! to whose immortal eyes (1) Mithridates of Pontus. Which speaks but in its loneliness, And then is jealous lest the sky Should have a listener, nor will sigh Until its voice is echoless. II. Titan! to thee the strife was given Was thine and thou hast borne it well. III. Thy Godlike crime was to be kind, But baffled as thou wert from high, Still in thy patient energy, In the endurance, and repulse Of thine impenetrable Spirit, Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit : Thou art a symbol and a sign To Mortals of their fate and force; Like thee, Man is in part, divine, A. troubled stream from a pure source; And Man in portions can foresee His wretchedness, and his resistance, To which his Spirit may oppose And a firm will, and a deep sense, Its own concenter'd recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy, And making Death a Victory. Diodati, July, 1816. |