Complaint Prometheus

A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ )

PROMETHEUS (alone)

O holy Aether, and swift-winged Winds,

And River-wells, and laughter innumerous

Of yon Sea-waves! Earth, mother of us all,

And all-viewing cyclic Sun, I cry on you,–

Behold me a god, what I endure from gods!

Behold, with throe on throe,

How, wasted by this woe,

I wrestle down the myriad years of Time!

Behold, how fast around me

The new King of the happy ones sublime

Has flung the chain he forged, has shamed and bound me!

Woe, woe! to-day’s woe and the coming morrow’s

I cover with one groan. And where is found me

A limit to these sorrows?

And yet what word do I say? I have foreknown

Clearly all things that should be; nothing done

Comes sudden to my soul–and I must bear

What is ordained with patience, being aware

Necessity doth front the universe

With an invincible gesture. Yet this curse

Which strikes me now, I find it hard to brave

In silence or in speech. Because I gave

Honor to mortals, I have yoked my soul

To this compelling fate. Because I stole

The secret fount of fire, whose bubbles went

Over the ferrule’s brim, and manward sent

Art’s mighty means and perfect rudiment,

That sin I expiate in this agony,

Hung here in fetters, ‘neath the blanching sky.

Ah, ah me! what a sound,

What a fragrance sweeps up from a pinion unseen

Of a god, or a mortal, or nature between,

Sweeping up to this rock where the earth has her bound,

To have sight of my pangs, or some guerdon obtain–

Lo, a god in the anguish, a god in the chain!

The god Zeus hateth sore,

And his gods hate again,

As many as tread on his glorified floor,

Because I loved mortals too much evermore.

Alas me! what a murmur and motion I hear,

As of birds flying near!

And the air undersings

The light stroke of their wings–

And all life that approaches I wait for in fear.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• Poem (The lump of coal my parents teased) by William Matthews by Anglo File
• Beautiful Balmoral by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• Beautiful Balmerino by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• Baldovan by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• Attempted Assassination of the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• Annie Marshall the Foundling by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• An Ode to the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• An Autumn Reverie by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• An All-Night Sea Fight by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• An Adventure in the Life of King James V of Scotland by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• An Address to the Rev. George Gilfillan by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• Adventures of King Robert the Bruce by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tribute to Mr Murphy and the Blue Ribbon Army by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tribute to Mr J. Graham Henderson, The World’s Fair Judge by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tribute to Henry M. Stanley by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tribute to Dr. Murison by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tale of the Sea by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tale of Elsinore by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Tale of Christmas Eve by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Summary History of Lord Clive by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

Parallel Translations of Poetry

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works