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SO ended Saturn; and the God of the Sea, | |
| Sophist and sage, from no Athenian grove, | |
| But cogitation in his watery shades, | |
| Arose, with locks not oozy, and began, | |
| In murmurs, which his first endeavouring tongue | 5 |
| Caught infant-like from the far-foamed sands. | |
| O ye, whom wrath consumes! who, passion-stung, | |
| Writhe at defeat, and nurse your agonies! | |
| Shut up your senses, stifle up your ears, | |
| My voice is not a bellows unto ire. | 10 |
| Yet listen, ye who will, whilst I bring proof | |
| How ye, perforce, must be content to stoop: | |
| And in the proof much comfort will I give, | |
| If ye will take that comfort in its truth. | |
| We fall by course of Natures law, not force | 15 |
| Of thunder, or of Jove. Great Saturn, thou | |
| Hast sifted well the atom-universe; | |
| But for this reason, that thou art the King, | |
| And only blind from sheer supremacy, | |
| One avenue was shaded from thine eyes, | 20 |
| Through which I wandered to eternal truth. | |
| And first, as thou wast not the first of powers, | |
| So art thou not the last; it cannot be. | |
| Thou art not the beginning nor the end. | |
| From chaos and parental darkness came | 25 |
| Light, the first fruits of that intestine broil, | |
| That sullen ferment, which for wondrous ends | |
| Was ripening in itself. The ripe hour came, | |
| And with it light, and light engendering | |
| Upon its own producer, forthwith touched | 30 |
| The whole enormous matter into life. | |
| Upon that very hour, our parentage, | |
| The Heavens and the Earth, were manifest: | |
| Then thou first-born, and we the giant-race, | |
| Found ourselves ruling new and beauteous realms. | 35 |
| Now comes the pain of truth, to whom tis pain; | |
| O folly! for to bear all naked truths, | |
| And to envisage circumstance, all calm, | |
| That is the top of sovereignty. Mark well! | |
| As Heaven and Earth are fairer, fairer far | 40 |
| Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; | |
| And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth | |
| In form and shape compact and beautiful, | |
| In will, in action free, companionship, | |
| And thousand other signs of purer life; | 45 |
| So on our heels a fresh perfection treads, | |
| A power more strong in beauty, born of us | |
| And fated to excel us, as we pass | |
| In glory that old Darkness: nor are we | |
| Thereby more conquered than by us the rule | 50 |
| Of shapeless Chaos. Say, doth the dull soil | |
| Quarrel with the proud forests it hath fed, | |
| And feedeth still, more comely than itself? | |
| Can it deny the chiefdom of green groves? | |
| Or shall the tree be envious of the dove | 55 |
| Because it cooeth, and hath snowy wings | |
| To wander wherewithal and find its joys? | |
| We are such forest-trees, and our fair boughs | |
| Have bred forth, not pale solitary doves, | |
| But eagles golden-feathered, who do tower | 60 |
| Above us in their beauty, and must reign | |
| In right thereof; for tis the eternal law | |
| That first in beauty should be first in might: | |
| Yea, by that law, another race may drive | |
| Our conquerors to mourn as we do now. | 65 |
| Have ye beheld the young God of the Seas, | |
| My dispossessor? Have ye seen his face? | |
| Have ye beheld his chariot, foamd along | |
| By noble winged creatures he hath made? | |
| I saw him on the calmed waters scud, | 70 |
| With such a glow of beauty in his eyes, | |
| That it enforced me to bid sad farewell | |
| To all my empire: farewell sad I took, | |
| And hither came, to see how dolorous fate | |
| Had wrought upon ye; and how I might best | 75 |
| Give consolation in this woe extreme. | |
| Receive the truth, and let it be your balm. | |
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