30
MAZEPPA.
“And I was then not what I seem,
“But headlong as a wintry stream,
“And wore my feelings out before
“I well could count their causes o’er:
“And what with fury, fear, and wrath,
“The tortures which beset my path,530
“Cold, hunger, sorrow, shame, distress,
“Thus bound in nature’s nakedness;
“Sprung from a race whose rising blood
“When stirr’d beyond its calmer mood,
“And trodden hard upon, is like
“The rattle-snake’s, in act to strike,
“What marvel if this worn-out trunk
“Beneath its woes a moment sunk?
“The earth gave way, the skies roll’d round,
“I seem’d to sink upon the ground;540
“But err’d, for I was fastly bound.
“My heart turn’d sick, my brain grew sore,
“And throbb’d awhile, then beat no more:
“The skies spun like a mighty wheel;
