“O fool, thou fool! thou hectoring fool! “Thou sorrow-tormented one! “Cruelly murder’d are all thy bright hopes, “Thy bosom’s frolicsome children, “And ah! thy heart, thy Niobe-heart “Through grief turn’d to stone! “Within thy head ’tis now night, “And through it are flashing the lightnings of frenzy “And thou boastest of sorrow! “O fool, thou fool! thou hectoring fool! “Headstrong art thou as thy forefather, “The lofty Titan, who heavenly fire “Stole from the gods and gave unto mortals, “And, vulture-tormented, chain’d to the rock, “Defied e’en Olympus, defied, groaning loudly, “So that in ocean’s far depths did we hear it, “And to him came with a comforting song. “O fool, thou fool! thou hectoring fool! “But thou art more powerless even than he, “And thou would’st do well to honour the deities, “And patiently bear the burden of sorrow, “And patiently bear with it, long, ay, full long, “Till Atlas himself his patience hath lost, “And the heavy world from his shoulders throws off “Into eternal night.” Thus sounded the song of the Oceanides, The beauteous compassionate water-nymphs, Till still louder billows at last overpower’d it-- Then went the moon in the rear of the clouds, And night ’gan to yawn, And long I sat in the darkness, with weeping. 6. THE GODS OF GREECE. Full-blossoming moon! In thy fair light Like liquid gold, the ocean gleams: Like daylight’s clearness, yet charm’d into twilight, Over the strand’s wide plain all is lying; In the starless clear azure heavens Hover the snowy clouds, Like colossal figures of deities Of glittering marble. No, ’tis not so, no clouds can they be! ’Tis they themselves, the Gods of old Hellas, Who once so joyously ruled o’er the world, But now, tormented and perish’d, Like monster spectres are moving along Over the midnight heaven. Wond’ring and strangely blinded, observed I The airy pantheon, The solemnly mute and fearfully moving Figures gigantic.