Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)

thumb|upright=1.15|All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil. Prometheus Unbound is a four-act lyrical drama by Percy Bysshe Shelley, first published in 1820. It is concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus, who defies the gods and gives stolen fire to humanity, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment and suffering at the hands of Zeus. It is inspired by the classical Prometheia, a trilogy of plays attributed to Aeschylus. Shelley's play concerns Prometheus' release from captivity, but unlike Aeschylus' version, there is no reconciliation between Prometheus and Jupiter (Zeus). Instead, Jupiter is abandoned by his servants and falls from power, which allows Prometheus to be released. Quotes Act I 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. Prometheus, l. 12 Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain, Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb, Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life. Prometheus, l. 20 No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure. Prometheus, l. 24                                   Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, Met his own image walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw. The Earth, l. 191 Dreams and the light imaginings of men, And all that faith creates or love desires, Terrible, strange, sublime, and beauteous shapes. The Earth, l. 200 Cruel he looks, but calm and strong, Like one who does, not suffers wrong. Panthea, l. 238 It doth repent me: words are quick and vain;    Grief for awhile is blind, and so was mine. I wish no living thing to suffer pain. Prometheus, l. 303                                    Evil minds Change good to their own nature. Prometheus, l. 381 Kingly conclaves stern and cold, Where blood with gold is bought and sold. Fourth Fury, l. 531 See a disenchanted nation Springs like day from desolation; To Truth its state is dedicate, And Freedom leads it forth, her mate. Semichorus 1, l. 538 And the future is dark, and the present is spread Like a pillow of thorns for thy slumberless head. Chorus, l. 562               In each human heart terror survives The ruin it has gorged: the loftiest fear All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy and custom make their minds The fanes of many a worship, now outworn. They dare not devise good for man's estate, And yet they know not that they do not dare. Fury, l. 619 The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom; And all best things are thus confused to ill. Many are strong and rich, and would be just, But live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt: they know not what they do. Fury, l. 626 Thy words are like a cloud of wingèd snakes; And yet I pity those they torture not. Prometheus, l. 633                                    Peace is in the grave. The grave hides all things beautiful and good. I am a God and cannot find it there, Nor would I seek it; for, though dread revenge, This is defeat, fierce king, not victory. Prometheus, l. 639 The dust of creeds outworn. First Spirit, l. 698 Cf. Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much With Us" On a poet's lips I slept Dreaming like a love-adept In the sound his breathing kept; Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses, But feeds on the aërial kisses Of shapes that haunt thought's wildernesses. He will watch from dawn to gloom The lake-reflected sun illume The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom, Nor heed nor see what things they be; But from these create he can Forms more real than living man, Nurslings of immortality! Fourth Spirit, l. 738 Act II Those eyes which burn thro' smiles that fade in tears, Like stars half quenched in mists of silver dew. Asia, sc. i, l. 28 Low, sweet, faint sounds, like the farewell of ghosts. Asia, sc. i, l. 158 Sounds overflow the listener's brain So sweet, that joy is almost pain. Semichorus 2, sc. ii, l. 247 Who made that sense which, when the winds of spring In rarest visitation, or the voice Of one beloved heard in youth alone, Fills the faint eyes with falling tears which dim The radiant looks of unbewailing flowers, And leaves this peopled earth a solitude When it returns no more? Asia, sc. iv, l. 415 To know nor faith, nor love, nor law, to be Omnipotent but friendless, is to reign. Asia, sc. iv, l. 450 He gave man speech, and speech created thought, Which is the measure of the universe. Asia, sc. iv, l. 475 All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil. Demogorgon, sc. iv, l. 513 Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance and Change? To these All things are subject but eternal Love. Demogorgon, sc. iv, l. 522 My coursers are fed with the lightning,    They drink of the whirlwind's stream, And when the red morning is bright'ning    They bathe in the fresh sunbeam. Spirit, sc. v, l. 566                                            All love is sweet, Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air, It makes the reptile equal to the God; They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still. Asia, sc. v, l. 616 Life of Life! thy lips enkindle    With their love the breath between them; And thy smiles before they dwindle    Make the cold air fire; then screen them In those looks, where whoso gazes Faints, entangled in their mazes. Child of Light! thy lips are burning    Thro' the vest which seems to hide them; As the radiant lines of morning    Thro' the clouds ere they divide them; And this atmosphere divinest Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest. Voice, sc. v, l. 625    My soul is an enchanted boat,    Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing. Asia, sc. v, l. 649    We have past Age's icy caves,    And Manhood's dark and tossing waves, And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray:    Beyond the glassy gulphs we flee    Of shadow-peopled Infancy, Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day. Asia, sc. v, l. 675 Act III Thetis, bright image of eternity! Jupiter, sc. i, l. 36 We two will sink on the wide waves of ruin, Even as a vulture and a snake outspent Drop, twisted in inextricable fight, Into a shoreless sea. Jupiter, sc. ii, l. 71 Weave harmonies divine, yet ever new. Prometheus, sc. iii, l. 171 Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted. The Earth, sc. iii, l. 246 Cf. "Lift not the painted veil" Or the dull sneer of self-loved ignorance. Spirit of the Earth, sc. iv, l. 351 The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains,— Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man: Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself; just, gentle, wise: but man. Passionless? no:—yet free from guilt or pain,— Which were, for his will made or suffered them, Nor yet exempt, tho' ruling them like slaves, From chance, and death, and mutability,— The clogs of that which else might oversoar The loftiest star of unascended heaven, Pinnacled dim in the intense inane. Spirit of the Hour, sc. iv, l. 501 Act IV      The pale stars are gone!      For the sun, their swift shepherd,      To their folds them compelling,      In the depths of the dawn, Hastes, in meteor-eclipsing array, and the flee      Beyond his blue dwelling,      As fawns flee the leopard. Voice of Unseen Spirits, l. 1 Laugh with a vast and inextinguishable laughter. The Earth, l. 334 Familiar acts are beautiful through love. The Earth, l. 403 Language is a perpetual Orphic song, Which rules with Dædal harmony a throng Of thoughts and forms, which else senseless and shapeless were. The Earth, l. 415 Ye kings of suns and stars, Dæmons and Gods,    Ethereal Dominations, who possess Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes    Beyond Heaven's constellated wilderness. Demogorgon, l. 529 thumb|Soul meets soul on lovers' lips. Soul meets soul on lovers' lips. The Moon, l. 451 Man, who wert once a despot and a slave,    A dupe and a deceiver! a decay, A traveller from the cradle to the grave    Through the dim night of this immortal day. Demogorgon, l. 549 This is the day, which down the void abysm At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism    And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep: Love, from its awful throne of patient power In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour    Of dread endurance, from the slippery, steep, And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs And folds over the world its healing wings. Demogorgon, l. 554 Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance, These are the seals of that most firm assurance    Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength; And if, with infirm hand, Eternity, Mother of many acts and hours, should free    The serpent that would clasp her with his length; These are the spells by which to re-assume An empire o'er the disentangled doom. Demogorgon, l. 562 To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night;    To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;    Neither to change nor falter nor repent; This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory! Demogorgon, l. 570 (closing lines) External links Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems, 1st ed. (London: C. and J. Ollier, 1820) Vida D. Scudder (ed.) Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1892) Category:Plays