Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)

"Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours, And moments aye divided by keen pangs Till they seemed years, torture and solitude, Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire."

"Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain, Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb, Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life."

"Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, Met his own image walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw."

"Dreams and the light imaginings of men, And all that faith creates or love desires, Terrible, strange, sublime, and beauteous shapes."

"It doth repent me: words are quick and vain; Grief for awhile is blind, and so was mine. I wish no living thing to suffer pain."

"Cruel he looks, but calm and strong, Like one who does, not suffers wrong."

"Evil minds Change good to their own nature."

"Kingly conclaves stern and cold, Where blood with gold is bought and sold."

"And the future is dark, and the present is spread Like a pillow of thorns for thy slumberless head."

"In each human heart terror survives The ruin it has gorged: the loftiest fear All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy and custom make their minds The fanes of many a worship, now outworn. They dare not devise good for mans estate, And yet they know not that they do not dare."

"The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom; And all best things are thus confused to ill. Many are strong and rich, and would be just, But live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt: they know not what they do."

"No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure."