Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/80

Daring the ocean's mighty roar, until
Thou come unto Cisthenes' Gorgon plains,
Where dwell the Phorcides, three ancient maids,
Swan-form'd, possessive of one common eye,
And single-tooth'd; on whom doth never gaze
The rayed sun, nor yet the nightly moon.
And near them are their winged sisters three,
The Gorgons, serpent-hair'd and man-abhorr'd,²⁰
Whom mortal cannot look upon and live;
I warn thee against such: but hearken now
Unto another dreary spectacle.
Beware of Jove's sharp-mouth'd, unbarking dogs,²¹
The griffins; and the Arimaspian host,
One-eyed, horse-governing, who dwell beside
The gold-imbubbling wave of Pluto's stream:
To whom approach not. To a distant clime
Thou com'st, a dusky race, that sojourns near
The fountain of the Sun, where Niger flows.
Wind thou along her shores, until thou reach