Darkens the blue pool’s silver mirror ?
How bursts the mountain-chasm asunder ?
Whose voice reverberates in thunder
Muttering what curse? The sun dissolves
In anguish; the mad moon revolves
Like a wild thing about its cage ;
The stars are shaken in the rage
Of—who but Zeus? Before our gaze,
(My love’s in shuddering amaze,
Of birth deceived and death forlorn,
And mine in anger, ay! and scorn !)
He stood—the mighty One! So earth
And heaven proclaimed that fearful birth:
So they grew silent lest he curse.
Dead silence hushed the universe;
And then in clear calm tones he spoke:
“Fools! who have meddled, and awoke
The inmost forces of the world!
One lightning from my hand had hurled
Both to annihilation’s brink.
What foolish goddess bade ye think
Ye thus could play with thunder, roll
Your wheels upon the world, control
The stately being of a soul?
Just am I ever! Therefore know
The unrevengeful law of woe
That ye invoke. Thou seekest life,
Child of my water! Thou a wife,
Child of my sun! Draw living breath,
Maiden, and gain the guerdon—death !
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