299

Those silver wings expanded sisterly,
Eager to sail their orb; the porches wide
Open'd upon the dusk demesnes of night;
And the bright Titan, phrenzied with new
woes,
Unused to bend, by hard compulsion bent
His spirit to the sorrow of the time;
And all along a dismal rack of clouds,
Upon the boundaries of day and night,
He stretch'd himself in grief and radiance
faint.

There as he lay, the Heaven with its stars Look'd down on him with pity, and the voice

Of Cœlus, from the universal space,
Thus whisper'd low and solemn in his ear:
'O brightest of my children dear, earth-born
And sky-engendered, Son of Mysteries 310
All unrevealed even to the powers
Which met at thy creating; at whose joys
And palpitations sweet, and pleasures soft,
I, Cœlus, wonder, how they came and
whence;

And at the fruits thereof what shapes they be,

Distinct, and visible; symbols divine, Manifestations of that beauteous life Diffused unseen throughout eternal space: Of these new-form'd art thou, oh brightest child!

Of these, thy brethren and the Goddesses!

320

There is sad feud among ye, and rebellion
Of son against his sire. I saw him fall,
I saw my first-born tumbled from his

throne!

To me his arms were spread, to me his

voice

Found way from forth the thunders round

his head!

Pale wox I, and in vapours hid my face. Art thou, too, near such doom? vague fear there is:

For I have seen my sons most unlike Gods. Divine ye were created, and divine

In sad demeanour, solemn, undisturb'd, 330 Unruffled, like high Gods, ye lived and ruled:

Now I behold in you fear, hope, and wrath;

Actions of rage and passion; even as
I see them, on the mortal world beneath,
In men who die. - This is the grief, O
Son !

Sad sign of ruin, sudden dismay, and fall !
Yet do thou strive; as thou art capable,
As thou canst move about, an evident
God;

And canst oppose to each malignant hour
Ethereal presence:- - I am but a voice; 340
My life is but the life of winds and tides,
No more than winds and tides can I
avail:-

But thou canst. Be thou therefore in the

van

Of circumstance; yea, seize the arrow's barb

Before the tense string murmur. To the earth!

For there thou wilt find Saturn, and his

woes.

And thus in thousand hugest phantasies Made a fit roofing to this nest of woe. Instead of thrones, hard flint they sat upon, Couches of rugged stone, and slaty ridge Stubborn'd with iron. All were not assembled:

Some chain'd in torture, and some wandering.

Cœus, and Gyges, and Briareüs,

20

With many more, the brawniest in assault,
Were pent in regions of laborious breath;
Dungeon'd in opaque element to keep
Their clenched teeth still clench'd, and all
their limbs

Lock'd up like veins of metal, crampt and screw'd;

Without a motion, save of their big hearts
Heaving in pain, and horribly convulsed
With sanguine, feverous, boiling gurge of
pulse.

Mnemosyne was straying in the world;
Far from her moon had Phœbe wandered; 30
And many else were free to roam abroad,
But for the main, here found they covert
drear.

Scarce images of life, one here, one there,
Lay vast and edgeways; like a dismal

cirque

Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor, When the chill rain begins at shut of eve, In dull November, and their chancel vault, The Heaven itself, is blinded throughout

night.

60

For she was prophesying of her glory;
And in her wide imagination stood
Palm-shaded temples, and high rival fanes,
By Oxus or in Ganges' sacred isles.
Even as Hope upon her anchor leans,
So leant she, not so fair, upon a tusk
Shed from the broadest of her elephants.
Above her, on a crag's uneasy shelve,
Upon his elbow raised, all prostrate else,
Shadow'd Enceladus; once tame and mild
As grazing ox unworried in the meads;
Now tiger-passion'd, lion-thoughted, wroth,
He meditated, plotted, and even now
Was hurling mountains in that second
war,

70

Not long delay'd, that scared the younger Gods

To hide themselves in forms of beast and

bird.

Not far hence Atlas; and beside him prone Phorcus, the sire of Gorgons. Neighbour'd close

Oceanus, and Tethys, in whose lap

Sobb'd Clymene among her tangled hair.

spread,

Who shall delay her flight? And she must chant

Of Saturn, and his guide, who now had climb'd

With damp and slippery footing from a depth

More horrid still. Above a sombre cliff Their heads appear'd, and up their stature

grew

Till on the level height their steps found

ease:

Then Thea spread abroad her trembling

arms

Upon the precincts of this nest of pain, 90 And sidelong fix'd her eye on Saturn's face:

There saw she direst strife; the supreme
God

At war with all the frailty of grief,
Of rage, of fear, anxiety, revenge,
Remorse, spleen, hope, but most of all de-
spair.

Against these plagues he strove in vain: for Fate

Had pour'd a mortal oil upon his head,
A disanointing poison: so that Thea,
Affrighted, kept her still, and let him pass
First onwards in, among the fallen tribe. 100

As with us mortal men, the laden heart Is persecuted more, and fever'd more, When it is nighing to the mournful house Where other hearts are sick of the same

bruise;

So Saturn, as he walk'd into the midst,

Felt faint, and would have sunk among the

rest,

But that he met Enceladus's eye,