The Doom Fulfilled
Sir Edward
Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA (1833-1898)
Oil on canvas - 154 x 138
cm
This painting
describes the Perseus legend that appears in William Morris's "The Doom of
King Acrisius" from The Earthly Paradise.
"The
Doom of King Acrisius" in The Earthly Paradise. 5 vols. London: Longmans,
Green, 1896.
He
beheld the sea,
And
saw a huge wave rising mightily
Above
the smaller breakers of the shore,
Which
in its green breast for a minute bore
A
nameless horror, that it cast aland
And left,
a huge mass on the oozing sand,
That
scarcely seemed a living thing to be,
Until
at last those twain it seemed to see,
And
gathering up its strange limbs, towards them passed.
And
therewithal a dismal trumpet-blast
Rang
from the tower, and from the distant town
The
wind in answer brought loud wails adown.
Then Perseus gently put the maid from
him,
Who
sank down shivering in her every limb,
Silent
despite herself for fear and woe,
As
down the beach he ran to meet the foe.
But he, beholding Jove's son drawing
near,
A
great black fold against him did uprear,
Maned
with grey tufts of hair, as some old tree
Hung
round with moss, in lands where vapours be;
From
his bare skull his red eyes glowed like flame
And
from his open mouth a sound there came,
Strident
and hideous, that still louder grew
As
that rare sight of one in arms he knew:
But
godlike, fearless, burning with desire,
The
adamant jaws and lidless eyes of fire
Did
Perseus mock, and lightly leapt aside
As
forward did the torture-chamber glide
Of
his huge head, and ere the beast could turn,
One
moment bright did blue-edged Herpe burn,
The
next was quenched in the black flow of blood;
Then
in confused folds the hero stood,
His
bright face shadowed by the jaws of death,
His
hair blown backward by the poisonous breath;
But
all that passed, like lightning-lighted street
In
the dark night, as the blue blade did meet
The
wrinkled neck, and with no faltering stroke,
Like
a God's hand the fell enchantment broke,
And
then again in place of crash and roar,
He
heard the shallow breakers on the shore,
And
o'er his head the sea-gull's plaintive cry,
Careless
as Gods for who might live or die.
— "The Doom of King Acrisius," I,
274-75]
Morris,
William.
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