Analysis of Prometheus Unbound: Act I (excerpt)
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
SCENE.--A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice. Panthea and Ione areseated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks.
Prometheus.
Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all Spirits
But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds
Which Thou and I alone of living things
Behold with sleepless eyes! regard this Earth
Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou
Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,
And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,
With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.
Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,
Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn,
O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.
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:--
More glorious far than that which thou surveyest
From thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God!
Almighty, had I deigned to share the shame
Of thine ill tyranny, and hung not here
Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain,
Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,
Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life.
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?
I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,
Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,
Heaven's ever-changing Shadow, spread below,
Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!
The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
Of their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones.
Heaven's wingèd hound, polluting from thy lips
His beak in poison not his own, tears up
My heart; and shapeless sights come wandering by,
The ghastly people of the realm of dream,
Mocking me: and the Earthquake-fiends are charged
To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds
When the rocks split and close again behind:
While from their loud abysses howling throng
The genii of the storm, urging the rage
Of whirlwind, and afflict me with keen hail.
And yet to me welcome is day and night,
Whether one breaks the hoar frost of the morn,
Or starry, dim, and slow, the other climbs
The leaden-coloured east; for then they lead
The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom
--As some dark Priest hales the reluctant victim--
Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood
From these pale feet, which then might trample thee
If they disdained not such a prostrate slave.
Disdain! Ah no! I pity thee. What ruin
Will hunt thee undefended through wide Heaven!
How will thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror,
Gape like a hell within! I speak in grief,
Not exultation, for I hate no more,
As then ere misery made me wise. The curse
Once breathed on thee I would recall. Ye Mountains,
Whose many-voicèd Echoes, through the mist
Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell!
Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,
Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept
Shuddering through India! Thou serenest Air,
Through which the Sun walks burning without beams!
And ye swift Whirlwinds, who on poisèd wings
Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss,
As thunder, louder than your own, made rock
The orbèd world! If then my words had power,
Though I am changed so that aught evil wish
Is dead within; although no memory be
Of what is hate, let them not lose it now!
What was that curse? for ye all heard me speak....
Scheme | aaxxbxcxxxdexxxxfdxxxgxxF xxgxxhF xxxxxxxxxxxxxxexxxxxhxggfxxxxxxxxxxbxxfxhcx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (21%) |
Metre | 1001110100100100110101101001000010111111100110101 1 1110110110 1111110101 1101011101 0111010111 1111111 11110101 01011101 1101010101 1111111001 1111010111 101110001101 110111110 0101010111 111110010 1001111100 1100111111 11111101 0101111101 1111000111 111111010010 11011011 111111111 11011110110 1111111101 1101110101 11110010101 1111010111 1010101101 1111111100 11011110110 0101011101 1111010011 1111010111 10111010111 1101011111 11010111001 0101010111 101001111 11010111001 1011010101 11111101 011011001 110011111 0111101101 1011011101 1101010101 0101011111 0110101011 11111001010 1111011101 1111111101 1101110101 01111101110 11111110 11111111110 1101011101 1111111 11110011101 1111111110 1101110101 1101010111 11011011001 11111011 1001100111 1101110011 011111111 1101101101 1101011111 01111111110 1111111101 1101111001 1111111111 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 3,661 |
Words | 611 |
Sentences | 39 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 25, 7, 43 |
Lines Amount | 75 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 910 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 202 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 29, 2023
- 3:04 min read
- 111 Views
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"Prometheus Unbound: Act I (excerpt)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29200/prometheus-unbound%3A-act-i-%28excerpt%29>.
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