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CENTAUR'S FLIGHT by JOSE-MARIA DE HEREDIA (1842-1905)

First Line: RED-HANDED AND WITH SAVAGE THEWS AFIRE
Last Line: IN MONSTROUS GIRTH OF HERCULëAN SHADE.
Subject(s): CENTAURS;

RED-HANDED and with savage thews afire,
They fly toward their stronghold on the fell;
Fear on their flanks and death in front, they smell
A lion lurking in the darkness dire.
O'er torrent, gully, and entangled brier
They leap, down-treading serpents terrible,
While far away into the sky up-swell
High hills about Olympus' topmost spire.

At times a charger in the maddened raid
Rears upward, and swings round with dreadful heed,
Then in a bound rejoins the wild stampede,
For he has seen, by the bright moonbeams made,
An awful menace of enormous breed
In monstrous girth of Herculëan shade.



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