Prometheus
Prometheus - meaning Summary
Divine Suffering and Cyclical Pride
Byron's "Prometheus" presents a speaker who alternates between grand self-identification and humbling pain. Daytime assertions of godhood and fiery inner intoxication give way to nights of consuming dread and dreams of an eagle that devours him. Mornings bring physical weakness and temporary quenching, only for pride and vitality to return. The poem sketches a cyclical tension between defiant transcendence and recurrent suffering, ending with a reaffirmation of invulnerability.
Read Complete AnalysesI am the godly one. Each night I consume liquid fire that rages inside my brain, echoing: the godly one, the godly one. Diurnal boundaries, who and what I am, all the hoops I jump through, dissolve, dissolve… When, finally, I sleep, I dream of the eagle with eyes of liquid fire who comes to consume me. Next day I stumble against objects, air, a gnawing at my centre. Chastened, I drink water, quench the last of the fire. As night settles, I begin to feel level, whole, and ask: What have I proved? The answer comes back: That I am a god, unkillable. My veins drink godliness again; the eagle begins its vigil.
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