He was not fair to look on as a god-- Her husband whom God gave her; for his face, Not as the golden face of Phœbus glowed; Nor in his body was there light or grace;
But he was rugged-seeming; all his brows Were changed and smeared with the great human toil; His limbs all gnarled and knotted as the boughs And limbs of mighty oaks are: many a soil
Was on his skin, coarse-coloured as a bark; Yea, he was shorn of beauty from the birth; But strong, and of a mighty soul to work With Fate and all the iron of the earth.
Thereto he had a heart even to love That woman whom God gave him; and his part Of fate had been quite blest--ay, sweet enough, Having her beautiful and whole of heart.
But when he knew she was quite false and vain, He slew her not because she was so fair; Yea, spite of all the rest, had rather slain Himself, than lost the looking on her hair.
For then the labouring days had seemed to last Longer than ever: all had been too sore, Not to be borne as erst,--the world so vast-- Vaster than ever it had seemed before!
But, when he knew it, heavily the ire-- Darkly the sorrow of it wrought on him; The hollows of his eyes were filled with fire; The fruitless sweat was dried upon each limb:
Raging he went, and full of lust to kill: O he was fillèd with a great despair; But added labour unto labour still, And slew her not because she was so fair.
In all of life was nothing that atoned For that hard fate: in hearing of all heaven, About the iron mountain world he groaned; But no return of pitying was given.
The iron echoes in a mighty blast Flung up his voice toward the sweet abodes In the blue heaven: his pain was known at last In every palace of the painless gods.
He had no part but wholly to upbraid Them,--meters of his evil measured fate, Who first made fair, then spoiled the thing they made, And mingled all their gifts with love and hate.
Yet he was moved at length some way to win Vengeance, and all at once, on her and Him-- That god with whom she rather chose to sin Than with a man to love: when earth was dim--
Full of unearthly shadows in the night, He came upon those lovers unaware; And fairly caught them locked in their delight: Limb over limb he bound them in a snare.