Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/79

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
49

Io.A benefit
Having foreshown me, now despoil me not.
Pro. Of two discourses, I will give thee one.
Io. What two? Declare; and yield the choice to me.
Pro. I yield it. Choose that I should clearly name
Thy future woes, or my deliverer.
Cho. Vouchsafe one grace to her, and one to me;
Nor do dishonor to our mutual prayers;
To her narrate her future wandering;
To me, who shall deliver. This I yearn for.
Pro. Since ye desire it, I will question not,
Narrating all ye would. Io, to thee,
Thy various wand'rings I will first unfold.
Which in the book-memorial of thy mind19
Do thou inscribe. What time thy steps have pass'd
The strait, the boundary of continents,
Toward the fire-eyed, sun-track'd orient—
********

c