Canto II.]
Orion.
113
Comes like a mighty wind;—and, as a mast
In shipwreck, black with rigging flanking loose,
And black with wild-haired creatures clinging round,
With crash and horrid slant its blasted tree
Surrenders sidelong,—so the statue fell.
With it the crowd were carried; after it
Biastor, knowing not the depths beyond,
Or his strong impulse having no power to check,
Followed head foremost. Down the hollow banks
He, floundering o'er the statue's 'tangled coil,
Into an orchard 'midst the vale below,
Deep in the mould lay prone; and over him
The fallen statue lay athwart. 'T was thus,
The Builder absent, and at that time blind,
Force, and the Breaker-down their course fulfilled.
In shipwreck, black with rigging flanking loose,
And black with wild-haired creatures clinging round,
With crash and horrid slant its blasted tree
Surrenders sidelong,—so the statue fell.
With it the crowd were carried; after it
Biastor, knowing not the depths beyond,
Or his strong impulse having no power to check,
Followed head foremost. Down the hollow banks
He, floundering o'er the statue's 'tangled coil,
Into an orchard 'midst the vale below,
Deep in the mould lay prone; and over him
The fallen statue lay athwart. 'T was thus,
The Builder absent, and at that time blind,
Force, and the Breaker-down their course fulfilled.
"What have I done on earth?" Orion said,
While pensive on the platform of the morn
He stood. "My youth's companions are destroyed,
And Akinetos evermore seems right,
Predicting failure to our human acts:
Or good, or ill, alike untoward prove.
I have not well directed mine own strength,
Nor theirs." As thus he mused, a skylark sang
While pensive on the platform of the morn
He stood. "My youth's companions are destroyed,
And Akinetos evermore seems right,
Predicting failure to our human acts:
Or good, or ill, alike untoward prove.
I have not well directed mine own strength,
Nor theirs." As thus he mused, a skylark sang
