Prometheus Unbound

(excerpt)

Prometheus.

1 Monarch of Gods and Dеmons, and all Spirits

2But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds

3Which Thou and I alone of living things

4Behold with sleepless eyes! regard this Earth

5Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou

6Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,

7And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,

8With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.

9Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,

10Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn,

11O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.

12Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,

13And moments aye divided by keen pangs

14Till they seemed years, torture and solitude,

15Scorn and despair,--these are mine empire:--

16More glorious far than that which thou surveyest

17From thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God!

18Almighty, had I deigned to share the shame

19Of thine ill tyranny, and hung not here

20Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain,

21Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,

22Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life.

23Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!

 

24 No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.

25I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?

26I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,

27Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,

28Heaven's ever-changing Shadow, spread below,

29Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?

30Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!

 

31 The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears

32Of their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chains

33Eat with their burning cold into my bones.

34Heaven's winged hound, polluting from thy lips

35His beak in poison not his own, tears up

36My heart; and shapeless sights come wandering by,

37The ghastly people of the realm of dream,

38Mocking me: and the Earthquake-fiends are charged

39To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds

40When the rocks split and close again behind:

41While from their loud abysses howling throng

42The genii of the storm, urging the rage

43Of whirlwind, and afflict me with keen hail.

44And yet to me welcome is day and night,

45Whether one breaks the hoar frost of the morn,

46Or starry, dim, and slow, the other climbs

47The leaden-coloured east; for then they lead

48The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom

49--As some dark Priest hales the reluctant victim--

50Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood

51From these pale feet, which then might trample thee

52If they disdained not such a prostrate slave.

53Disdain! Ah no! I pity thee. What ruin

54Will hunt thee undefended through wide Heaven!

55How will thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror,

56Gape like a hell within! I speak in grief,

57Not exultation, for I hate no more,

58As then ere misery made me wise. The curse

59Once breathed on thee I would recall. Ye Mountains,

60Whose many-voiced Echoes, through the mist

61Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell!

62Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,

63Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept

64Shuddering through India! Thou serenest Air,

65Through which the Sun walks burning without beams!

66And ye swift Whirlwinds, who on poised wings

67Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss,

68As thunder, louder than your own, made rock

69The orbed world! If then my words had power,

70Though I am changed so that aught evil wish

71Is dead within; although no memory be

72Of what is hate, let them not lose it now!

73What was that curse? for ye all heard me speak.

 

23. Прочитайте «Оду західному вітру» П.Б. Шеллі. Дайте відповіді на запитання та виконайте завдання:

5. Визначте жанрові ознаки оди. Чи відповідає їм твір П.Б. Шеллі?

6. Що, на вашу думку, символізує образ західного вітру?

7. Зверніть увагу на появу ліричного героя в ІV та V строфах оди. Як відбувається розкриття авторського Я?

8. Яким чином на сюжеті та поетиці твору позначилася приналежність автора до романтичної художньої свідомості?

9. Яке значення мають образи природи у творі?

10. З якою метою автор використовує прийом психологічного паралелізму?

11. Вкажіть найвиразніші метафори. Визначте їх функції.

12. Який просторовий ареал твору? Як він створюється?