University of Virginia Library

Beautiful might
Of the earth-born children,
Brood of the Titans,
Ah, utterly fallen!
Ye were too noble to sit still
Beneath oppression; other spirits
Gave Zeus his way. They said,
‘Go to, he wields the thong of masterdom,
Exceedingly revengeful; and his plagues
Bite to the marrow of his foes.
Under his feet is laid
Dominion, will ye then
Resist him? Nay, not we.’
But ye had other song,
Ye Titans feasting with the lion-nerve,
Pressing your lips in, as the new young god
Played with his thunder, as a raw boy tries
His newly-handled sword
Upon the bark of trees.
Ye saw him, ye grim brood,
Scored with a many years, ere he had drawn
His baby milk; ye saw him, and ye smiled
In that he called, ‘Begone, ye old monsters, time
Has done with you. Did Saturn stand before
My bathing rays of glory?
One finger of my strength
Wipes you away like drops of dew.’
Then with a whisper ye rose up,
Ye spake no word of council,
Ye came one-minded,
Still and very terrible.
Ye piled the mountains
To scale the cloud-line.
Heaven saw ye come, and all
Her cloud munitions trembled.
Then howling fled
Zeus and his tyrant-brood,
Shrill-voiced as girls,
And sheltered them awhile
In bestial forms.
Awhile, but ye were easy in the flush
Of conquest, unrevengeful, when ye might
Have crushed them out,
Mild were ye and forgave
Their extirpation utterly.
So these drew breath and guile
Reseated them: O Titan sons of earth,
O mild great brethren, when the coiling beast
Resumed the terrors of his battered crest,
There was no mercy for you.
Mercy! nay, but horrible
Rapture of vengeance,
How they settled to it,
And all their eyes
Swam with the luxury of the feast.
Ye have seen a pack
Of wild dogs pulling
Against each other,
At some sick beast they have conquered;
And all their teeth
Are clogged with their tearings,
And they snarl at each other
Half-blinded with blood-spurts.
Ay me, my Titans—
Why have ye fallen?
Nobler than these which thrust you under night.
For ye were calm and great,
And when ye heard
The cry of earth your mother, whom these gods
Continually afflicted,
Ye flung yourselves on the new power, and just
Were stifling out the creature at its neck,
When it edged slily
Its secret teeth out,
And stung you down to darkness.

Beautiful might
Of the earth-born children,
Brood of the Titans,
Ah, utterly fallen.