Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/44

What time the gods their primal wrath began,
And 'mid their ranks arose the mutual strife,
Some eager to thrust Saturn from his throne,
That Jove forsooth should fill it; some averse,
Resolved that Jove should never rule the gods—
Did I by wisest counsel seek to move
The Titans, children of the heav'ns and earth;
But fail'd in power. For all my courteous guile,
Contemning with inexorable mind,
They thought to lord it, without toil, by force.
Oft had my mother Themis, yea, and Gaia,
(Albeit one, she beareth many names)
Foretold to me what future was to come;
That not by fortitude or force but fraud,
The victors were to vanquish. Such decree
When I unfolded in mine arguments,
They deignëd not to view the whole; what time
Meseem'd it best of every present ill,
That having won my mother to my side,