_Chorus._ By that gift thou didst help thy mortals well. _Prometheus._ I gave them also fire. _Chorus._ And have they now, Those creatures of a day, the red-eyed fire? _Prometheus._ They have: and shall learn by it many arts. _Chorus._ And truly for such sins Zeus tortures thee And will remit no anguish? Is there set No limit before thee to thine agony? _Prometheus._ No other: only what seems good to HIM. _Chorus._ And how will it seem good? what hope remains? Seest thou not that thou hast sinned? But that thou hast sinned It glads me not to speak of, and grieves thee: Then let it pass from both, and seek thyself Some outlet from distress. _Prometheus._ It is in truth An easy thing to stand aloof from pain And lavish exhortation and advice On one vexed sorely by it. I have known All in prevision. By my choice, my choice, I freely sinned--I will confess my sin-- And helping mortals, found my own despair. I did not think indeed that I should pine Beneath such pangs against such skyey rocks, Doomed to this drear hill and no neighbouring Of any life: but mourn not ye for griefs I bear to-day: hear rather, dropping down To the plain, how other woes creep on to me, And learn the consummation of my doom. Beseech you, nymphs, beseech you, grieve for me Who now am grieving; for Grief walks the earth, And sits down at the foot of each by turns. _Chorus._ We hear the deep clash of thy words, Prometheus, and obey. And I spring with a rapid foot away From the rushing car and the holy air, The track of birds; And I drop to the rugged ground and there Await the tale of thy despair. _OCEANUS enters._ _Oceanus._ I reach the bourn of my weary road Where I may see and answer thee, Prometheus, in thine agony. On the back of the quick-winged bird I glode, And I bridled him in With the will of a god. Behold, thy sorrow aches in me Constrained by the force of kin. Nay, though that tie were all undone, For the life of none beneath the sun Would I seek a larger benison Than I seek for thine. And thou shalt learn my words are truth,-- That no fair parlance of the mouth Grows falsely out of mine. Now give me a deed to prove my faith; For no faster friend is named in breath Than I, Oceanus, am thine. _Prometheus._ Ha! what has brought thee? Hast thou also come To look upon my woe? How hast thou dared To leave the depths called after thee, the caves Self-hewn and self-roofed with spontaneous rock, To visit earth, the mother of my chain? Hast come indeed to view my doom and mourn That I should sorrow thus? Gaze on, and see How I, the fast friend of your Zeus,--how I The erector of the empire in his hand, Am bent beneath that hand, in this despair.