The Constitution of Shelley's Poetry: Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound

Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start. In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. W.H. Auden At the close of Act I, a new day dawning prompted a Panthea “who loves” to leave Prometheus and seek out Asia. Now in response, an Asia with her eyes fixed on the same “point…[of the morning star] quivering still/Deep in the orange light of widening morn” implores her sister “wear[ing]/The shadow of that soul by which I live” (30–31) not to delay any longer but to come: This is the season, this the day, the hour; At sunrise thou shouldst come, sweet sister mine… Too long desired, too long delaying, come!… (13–15) Act I starts out with Prometheus in chains; its successor begins with Asia in suspense, hanging on every word her sister might be bringing of Prometheus. But at this dawn of a new day and a new act, Panthea does not directly tell Asia what has happened to Prometheus in his long night of pain and bondage. Instead, she tells of two dreams that have presumably arisen from within the tortured psychic and textual space of Act I.