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Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 8:46 pm
by Chanak
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:09 pm
by Chanak
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:19 pm
by Chanak
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2002 10:51 am
by Nippy
Good lord! When we said get a room, we didn't literally mean you two...
Hot damn, this place is kerazy.
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2002 2:15 pm
by Chanak
@Scayde: Your PM box is once again full...
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 12:01 pm
by dragon wench
This space has come to be, amongst so many other things, a place of literary and artistic expression.....a place to share beauty in all its complex and nuanced layers of expression... I wanted to share here the first stanza of one of the most powerful and beautiful poems (well..more properly, "lyrical drama"
) to have ever been written in the English language....
Prometheus Unbound
Act I
SCENE, a Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. PROMETHEUS is discovered bound to the Precipice. PANTEA and IONE are seated at his feet. Time, Night. During the Scene morning slowly breaks.
PROMETHEUS
MONARCH of Gods and Dæmons, and all Spirits
But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds
Which Thou and I alone of living things
Behold with sleepless eyes! regard this Earth
Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou
Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,
And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,
With fear and self-contempt and barren hope;
Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,
Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn,
O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.
Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,
And moments aye divided by keen pangs
Till they seemed years, torture and solitude,
Scorn and despair--these are mine empire:
More glorious far than that which thou surveyest
From thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God!
Almighty, had I deigned to share the shame
Of thine ill tyranny, and hung not here
Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain,
Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,
Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life.
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, forever!
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?
I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,
Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,
Heaven's ever-changing shadow, spread below,
Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, forever!
The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
Of their moon-freezing crystals; the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones.
Heaven's wingèd hound, polluting from thy lips
His beak in poison not his own, tears up
My heart; and shapeless sights come wandering by,
The ghastly people of the realm of dream,
Mocking me; and the Earthquake-fiends are charged
To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds
When the rocks split and close again behind;
While from their loud abysses howling throng
The genii of the storm, urging the rage
Of whirlwind, and afflict me with keen hail.
And yet to me welcome is day and night,
Whether one breaks the hoar-frost of the morn,
Or starry, dim, and slow, the other climbs
The leaden-colored east; for then they lead
The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom--
As some dark Priest hales the reluctant victim--
Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood
From these pale feet, which then might trample thee
If they disdained not such a prostrate slave.
Disdain! Ah, no! I pity thee. What ruin
Will hunt thee undefended through the wide Heaven!
How will thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror,
Gape like a hell within! I speak in grief,
Not exultation, for I hate no more,
As then ere misery made me wise. The curse
Once breathed on thee I would recall. Ye Mountains,
Whose many-voicèd Echoes, through the mist
Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell!
Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,
Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept
Shuddering through India! Thou serenest Air
Through which the Sun walks burning without beams!
And ye swift Whirlwinds, who on poisèd wings
Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss,
As thunder, louder than your own, made rock
The orbèd world! If then my words had power,
Though I am changed so that aught evil wish
Is dead within; although no memory be
Of what is hate, let them not lose it now!
What was that curse? for ye all heard me speak.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The remaing acts of this poem, in addition to Shelley's complete body of work, can be found at
http://www.bartleby.com/139/index.html
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 12:22 pm
by Scayde
from Dragon Wench's SIG
Blessed is the man, who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."
@DW:...I stand in silent awe.....the power of this piece is not lost on me....*HUG*
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 2:56 pm
by Chanak
Prometheus was always my favorite figure in Greel mythology...
Thank you for posting that, DW.
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:31 pm
by Scayde
Thank you M_N, ...*HUG*,,,
You are a gifted poet, and I am so glad you decided to share these.
They need to be read and shared...I love your work.
It is very special.
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:38 pm
by Bloodstalker
Ode to beer.....
*Sound of bottle opening*
*sound of beer being guzzled*
drmatic pause for silence.....
BELCH
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:43 pm
by The Z
Time to crash the party Bstalker?
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:45 pm
by Bloodstalker
Not really, just call it artistic inspiration
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:48 pm
by The Z
Oh....I better stop the irrelevant SPAM than...
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:50 pm
by Bloodstalker
Is the a thing called relevant SPAM?
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:52 pm
by The Z
Uhh.....
....
