Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/72

He unto Pytho sent, and to Dodona's
Sagacious prophets, that he hence might learn
Whereby in act or speech to please the gods—
Nathless his messengers return'd, announcing
Various, and dark, and mystic oracles.
At length, an unambiguous answer came
To Inachus, which urged him, 'monished him,
T' expel me from my home and native land,
That so abandon'd, I might wander on
To earth's extremest verge: if he refused,
It threaten'd that a fire-eyed thunderbolt
Should fall from Jove t' exterminate his race.
Persuaded by the Loxian prophecies,
He drove me forth, and barr'd me from my home
He loath, me loath; but Jove's coercive bit
Constrain'd him to the act. Immediately
Perverted were my human form and mind;
And, horned as ye see, and goaded on
By pungent insect, with emadden'd leap