Volume I Part 36 (1/2)
And like the slow beats of some t.i.tan heart Buried beneath immeasurable woes, The forging-hammers thudded through the dream:_
Huge on a fallen tree, Lost in the darkness of primeval woods, Enceladus, earth-born Enceladus, The naked giant, brooded all alone.
Born of the lower earth, he knew not how, Born of the mire and clay, he knew not when, Brought forth in darkness, and he knew not why!
Thus, like a wind, went by a thousand years.
Anhungered, yet no comrade of the wolf, And cold, but with no power upon the sun, A master of this world that mastered him!
Thus, like a cloud, went by a thousand years.
_Who_ chained this other giant in his heart That heaved and burned like Etna? Heavily He bent his brows and wondered and was dumb.
And, like one wave, a thousand years went by.
He raised his matted head and scanned the stars.
He stood erect! He lifted his uncouth arms!
With inarticulate sounds his uncouth lips Wrestled and strove--_I am full-fed, and yet I hunger!
Who set this fiercer famine in my maw?_
_Can I eat moons, gorge on the Milky Way, Swill sunsets down, or sup the wash of the dawn Out of the rolling swine-troughs of the sea?
Can I drink oceans, lie beneath the mountains, And nuzzle their heavy boulders like a cub Sucking the dark teats of the tigress? Who, Who set this deeper hunger in my heart?_ And the dark forest echoed--_Who? Ah, who?_
”_I hunger!_”
And the night-wind answered him, ”Hunt, then, for food.”
”_I hunger!_”
And the sleek gorged lioness Drew nigh him, dripping freshly from the kill, Redder her lolling tongue, whiter her fangs, And gazed with ignorant eyes of golden flame.
”_I hunger!_”
Like a breaking sea his cry Swept through the night. Against his swarthy knees She rubbed the red wet velvet of her ears With mellow thunders of unweeting bliss, Purring--_Ah, seek, and you shall find.
Ah, seek, and you shall slaughter, gorge, ah seek, Seek, seek, you shall feed full, ah seek, ah seek._
Enceladus, earth-born Enceladus, Bewildered like a desert-pilgrim, saw A rosy City, opening in the clouds, The hunger-born mirage of his own heart, Far, far above the world, a home of G.o.ds, Where One, a G.o.ddess, veiled in the sleek waves Of her deep hair, yet glimmering golden through, Lifted, with radiant arms, ambrosial food For hunger such as this! Up the dark hills, He rushed, a thunder-cloud, Urged by the famine of his heart. He stood High on the topmost crags, he hailed the G.o.ds In thunder, and the clouds re-echoed it!
He hailed the G.o.ds!
And like a sea of thunder round their thrones Was.h.i.+ng, a midnight sea, his earth-born voice Besieged the halls of heaven! He hailed the G.o.ds!
They laughed, he heard them laugh!
With echo and re-echo, far and wide, A golden sea of mockery, they laughed!
Enceladus, earth-born Enceladus, Laid hold upon the rosy Gates of Heaven, And shook them with gigantic sooty hands, Asking he knew not what, but not for alms; And the Gates, opened as in jest; And, like a sooty jest, he stumbled in.
Round him the G.o.ds, the young and scornful G.o.ds, Cl.u.s.tered and laughed to mark the ravaged face, The brutal brows, the deep and dog-like eyes, The blunt black nails, and back with burdens bowed.
And, when they laughed, he snarled with uncouth lips And made them laugh again.