Читать книгу A Book of Christian Sonnets - william Allen - Страница 13

9. THE PROMETHEUS CHAINED OF AESCHYLUS.

'Tis piteous tale, in Grecian numbers told—

Prometheus chain'd by Vulcan to a rock;

Expos'd aloft to ev'ry tempest's shock,

To burning sun, and winter's shiv'ring cold:

And all his woe, as minstrel doth unfold,

From love to man, whom other gods would mock.

For man his hands Jove's treasury unlock;

The stolen fire he breathes on man's dull mould.

O, could this Bard have liv'd in Christian days,

And seen our blessed Lord nail'd to the tree,

Expos'd, from love to man, to scorn and woe;

He would have sung of Jesus; and his lays

Would shame our empty, soulless minstrelsy,

Whose strains in praise of Jesus never flow!