Nemea

Since the lone Tamer in the forest drear
Made bold to search for every frightful trace,
Resounding roars have told the fierce embrace.
Now sinks the sun, and silence lulls the ear.

The herdsman toward Tirynthus flees in fear
Through thicket, brier and brake with quickening pace,
And sees, with eyes bulged from their orbits' space,
The tawny monster at the wood's edge rear.

He screams. He Nemea's awful terror saw,
That 'gainst the blood-red sky its armed jaw,
Disheveled mane and tusks malignant shows;

For then mysterious twilight creeping in,
Great Hercules, round him the floating skin,—
Man blent with beast,—a grewsome hero grows.