
Prometheus
Poems (1851), Prometheus
Prometheus
Poems (1851), Prometheus
Context: Hard I strove
To put away my immortality,
Till my collected spirits swell'd my heart
Almost to bursting; but the strife is past.
It is a fearful thing to be a god,
And, like a god, endure a mortal's pain;
To be a show for earth and wondering heaven
To gaze and shudder at! But I will live,
That Jove may know there is a deathless soul
Who ne'er will be his subject. Yes, 'tis past.
The stedfast Fates confess my absolute will,—
Their own co-equal.
Prometheus
Poems (1851), Prometheus
On settling in Paris, France (as quoted in “Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit” http://www.title-magazine.com/2012/03/henry-ossawa-tanner-modern-spirit/ in Title Magazine; 2012)
"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VI, p. 85
Essays and Phantasies (1881)
“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”
T. Lucretius Carus the Epicurean Philosopher, His Six Books De Natura Rerum Done into English Verse (1682), Book III, lines 820–840
Prelude to Pt. I, st. 4
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)