The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 162

CYCLOPS: Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me!

But, wretched nothings, think ye not to flee Out of this rock; I, standing at the outlet, Will bar the way and catch you as you pa.s.s.

CHORUS: What are you roaring out, Cyclops?

CYCLOPS: I perish! _675

CHORUS: For you are wicked.

CYCLOPS: And besides miserable.

CHORUS: What, did you fall into the fire when drunk?

CYCLOPS: 'Twas n.o.body destroyed me.

CHORUS: Why then no one Can be to blame.

CYCLOPS: I say 'twas n.o.body Who blinded me.

CHORUS: Why then you are not blind. _680

CYCLOPS: I wish you were as blind as I am.

CHORUS: Nay, It cannot be that no one made you blind.

CYCLOPS: You jeer me; where, I ask, is n.o.body?

CHORUS: Nowhere, O Cyclops.

CYCLOPS: It was that stranger ruined me:--the wretch _685 First gave me wine and then burned out my eye, For wine is strong and hard to struggle with.

Have they escaped, or are they yet within?

CHORUS: They stand under the darkness of the rock And cling to it.

CYCLOPS: At my right hand or left? _690

CHORUS: Close on your right.

CYCLOPS: Where?

CHORUS: Near the rock itself.

You have them.

CYCLOPS: Oh, misfortune on misfortune!

I've cracked my skull.

CHORUS: Now they escape you--there.

NOTE: _693 So B.; Now they escape you there 1824.

CYCLOPS: Not there, although you say so.

CHORUS: Not on that side.

CYCLOPS: Where then?

CHORUS: They creep about you on your left. _695

CYCLOPS: Ah! I am mocked! They jeer me in my ills.

CHORUS: Not there! he is a little there beyond you.

CYCLOPS: Detested wretch! where are you?

ULYSSES: Far from you I keep with care this body of Ulysses.

CYCLOPS: What do you say? You proffer a new name. _700

ULYSSES: My father named me so; and I have taken A full revenge for your unnatural feast; I should have done ill to have burned down Troy And not revenged the murder of my comrades.

CYCLOPS: Ai! ai! the ancient oracle is accomplished; _705 It said that I should have my eyesight blinded By your coming from Troy, yet it foretold That you should pay the penalty for this By wandering long over the homeless sea.

ULYSSES: I bid thee weep--consider what I say; _710 I go towards the sh.o.r.e to drive my ship To mine own land, o'er the Sicilian wave.

CYCLOPS: Not so, if, whelming you with this huge stone, I can crush you and all your men together; I will descend upon the sh.o.r.e, though blind, _715 Groping my way adown the steep ravine.

CHORUS: And we, the shipmates of Ulysses now, Will serve our Bacchus all our happy lives.

EPIGRAMS.

[These four Epigrams were published--numbers 2 and 4 without t.i.tle--by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

1.--TO STELLA.

FROM THE GREEK OF PLATO.

Thou wert the morning star among the living, Ere thy fair light had fled;-- Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving New splendour to the dead.

2.--KISSING HELENA.

FROM THE GREEK OF PLATO.

Kissing Helena, together With my kiss, my soul beside it Came to my lips, and there I kept it,-- For the poor thing had wandered thither, To follow where the kiss should guide it, _5 Oh, cruel I, to intercept it!