So neck to stubborn neck, and obstinate knee to knee, Wrestled those two; and peerless Heracles Could not prevail, nor get at any vantage - So those huge hands that, small, had snapped great snakes, Let slip the writhing of Antaeus' wrists: Those hero's hands that wrenched the necks of bulls, Now fumbled round the slim Antaeus' limbs, Baffled. Then anger swelled in Heracles, And terribly he grappled broader arms, And yet more firmly fixed his grasped feet. And up his back the muscles bulged and shone Like climbing banks and domes of towering cloud. And they who watched that wrestling say he laughed, But no so loud as on Eurystheus of old. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AMERICAN NAMES by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET THE WAYS OF TIME by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A DREAM, AFTER READING DANTE'S EPISODE OF PAULO & FRANCESCA by JOHN KEATS LYRICS TO IANTHE (2). LAMENT by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR ON A BOY'S FIRST READING OF THE PLAY OF 'KING HENRY THE FIFTH' by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL HOME THOUGHTS FROM FRANCE by ISAAC ROSENBERG |