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The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood; With a Biographical Sketch and Notes
The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood With a Biographical Sketch and Notes Author:Thomas Hood General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1857 Original Publisher: Phillips, Sampson Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you c... more »an select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LYCUS, THE CENTAUR. FROM AN UNROLLED 1CANTSCRIPI OF 4POLLONIUS CURIUS. TBR AROCKEST. Lyons, detained by Ciroe In her magical dominion, is beloved by a Wate Nymph, who, desiring to render him immortal, baa recourse to the Sorceress. Ciroe gives her an incantation to pronounce, which should turn Lycos into a horse ; but the horrible effect of the charm causing her to break off in the midst, he becomes a Centaur. Who hath ever been lured and bound by a spell To wander, foredoomed, in that circle of hell Where Witchery works with her will like a god, Works more than the wonders of time at a nod, -- At a word, -- at a touch, -- at a flash of the eye; But each form is a cheat, and each sound is a lie, Things born of a wish -- to endure for a thought, Or last for long ages -- to vanish to naught, Or put on new semblance 1 0 Jove, I had given The throne of a kingdom to know if that heaven And the earth and its streams were of Circe, or whether They kept the world's birth-day and brightened together ! For I loved them in terror, and constantly dreaded That the earth where I trod, and the cave where I bedded, The face I might dote on, should live out the lease Of the charm that created, and suddenly cease: , And I gave me to slumber, as if from one dream To another -- each horrid -- and drank of the stream Like a first taste of blood, lest as water I quaffed Swift poison, and never should breathe from the draught, -- Such drink as her own monarch-husband drained up When he pledged her, and Fate closed his eyes in the cup. And I pl...« less