Revenge Prometheus Bound Essay Example For Students

Revenge Prometheus Bound Essay A monologue from the play by Percy Bysshe Shelley NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Prometheus Unbound; A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems. Percy Bysshe Shelley. London: C and J Ollier, 1820. PROMETHEUS: Evil mindsChange good to their own nature. I gave allHe has; and in return he chains me hereYears, ages, night and day: whether the SunSplit my parched skin, or in the moony nightThe crystal-winged snow cling round my hair:Whilst my beloved race is trampled downBy his thought-executing ministers.Such is the tyrants recompense: tis just:He who is evil can receive no good;And for a world bestowed, or a friend lost,He can feel hate, fear, shame; not gratitude:He but requites me for his own misdeed.Kindness to such is keen reproach, which breaksWith bitter stings the light sleep of Revenge.Submission, thou dost know I cannot try:For what submission but that fatal word,The death-seal of mankinds captivity,Like the Sicilians hair-suspended sword,Which trembles oer his crown, would he accept,Or could I yield? Which yet I will not yield.Let others flatter Crime, where it sits thronedIn brief Omnipotence: secure are they:For Justice, when triumphant, will weep downPity, not punish ment, on her own wrongs,Too much avenged by those who err. I wait,Enduring thus, the retributive hourWhich since we spake is even nearer now.