|
|
Birds of Passage: Flight The Third
Contents:
II
OLYMPUS.
HERMES (putting on his sandals.)
Much must he toil who serves the Immortal Gods,
And I, who am their herald, most of all.
No rest have I, nor respite. I no sooner
Unclasp the winged sandals from my feet,
Than I again must clasp them, and depart
Upon some foolish errand. But to-day
The errand is not foolish. Never yet
With greater joy did I obey the summons
That sends me earthward. I will fly so swiftly
That my caduceus in the whistling air
Shall make a sound like the Pandaean pipes,
Cheating the shepherds; for to-day I go,
Commissioned by high-thundering Zeus, to lead
A maiden to Prometheus, in his tower,
And by my cunning arguments persuade him
To marry her. What mischief lies concealed
In this design I know not; but I know
Who thinks of marrying hath already taken
One step upon the road to penitence.
Such embassies delight me. Forth I launch
On the sustaining air, nor fear to fall
Like Icarus, nor swerve aside like him
Who drove amiss Hyperion’s fiery steeds.
I sink, I fly! The yielding element
Folds itself round about me like an arm,
And holds me as a mother holds her child.
Contents:
Chicago:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "II Olympus.," Birds of Passage: Flight The Third, ed. Callaway, Morgan, Jr., 1962- in The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (New York: George E. Wood, 1850), Original Sources, accessed July 11, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GNA7CE84ID1NMDI.
MLA:
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "II Olympus." Birds of Passage: Flight The Third, edited by Callaway, Morgan, Jr., 1962-, in The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, New York, George E. Wood, 1850, Original Sources. 11 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GNA7CE84ID1NMDI.
Harvard:
Longfellow, HW, 'II Olympus.' in Birds of Passage: Flight The Third, ed. . cited in 1850, The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George E. Wood, New York. Original Sources, retrieved 11 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GNA7CE84ID1NMDI.
|