_ Here's an arm, at least,
Grappled past freeing.
Grappled past freeing.
Elizabeth Browning
_Hephaestus. _ I know it very well:
I argue not against it.
_Strength. _ Why not, then,
Make haste and lock the fetters over HIM
Lest Zeus behold thee lagging?
_Hephaestus. _ Here be chains.
Zeus may behold these.
_Strength. _ Seize him: strike amain:
Strike with the hammer on each side his hands--
Rivet him to the rock.
_Hephaestus. _ The work is done,
And thoroughly done.
_Strength. _ Still faster grapple him;
Wedge him in deeper: leave no inch to stir.
He's terrible for finding a way out
From the irremediable.
_Hephaestus.
_ Here's an arm, at least,
Grappled past freeing.
_Strength. _ Now then, buckle me
The other securely. Let this wise one learn
He's duller than our Zeus.
_Hephaestus. _ Oh, none but he
Accuse me justly.
_Strength. _ Now, straight through the chest,
Take him and bite him with the clenching tooth
Of the adamantine wedge, and rivet him.
_Hephaestus. _ Alas, Prometheus, what thou sufferest here
I sorrow over.
_Strength. _ Dost thou flinch again
And breathe groans for the enemies of Zeus?
Beware lest thine own pity find thee out.
_Hephaestus. _ Thou dost behold a spectacle that turns
The sight o' the eyes to pity.
_Strength.