Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/83

There Jove will give thee back thy perfect mind,
Laying upon thee in thy solitude,
A hand unterrible; and namëd from
That touch corrective, thou shalt bear a son
To Jove, dark Epaphus, who fruit shall cull
From every soil bedew'd by llowing Nile.
Nathless, of generations after him
The fifth in number, fifty maids, again
To Argos shall return unwillingly,
Flying the nuptials of their uncle's sons.
They, passion'd in their souls, as hawks pursue
Closely on doves, shall go to hunt a quarry
They should not hunt—but Heav'n shall cross their will—
And Græcia shall receive them, vanquishëd
By woman war, night-guarded fortitude:
For every husband, will a wife destroy.
Bathing in blood her doubly-edgëd sword—
Would that such nuptials graced mine enemies!