JASON.  ’Tis but the mountain’s peak thou seest, and not
             The toilsome climb to reach it, nor those steps
             By which alone the climber guides his feet.—­
             I sailed away, a hot, impetuous youth,
             O’er distant seas, upon the boldest quest
             That e’er within the memory of man
             Was ventured.  To this life I said farewell,
             And, the world well forgot, I fixed my gaze
             Solely upon that radiant Golden Fleece
             That, through the night, a star in the storm, shone out. 
             And none thought on return, but one and all,
             As though the hour that saw the trophy won
             Should be their last, strained every nerve to win. 
             And so, a valorous band, we sailed away,
             Boastful and thirsting deep for daring deeds,
             O’er sea and land, through storm and night and rocks,
             Death at our heels, Death beckoning us before. 
             And what at other times we had thought full
             Of terror, now seemed gentle, mild, and good;
             For Nature was more awful than the worst
             That man could do.  And, as we strove with her,
             And with barbarian hordes that blocked our path,
             The hearts of e’en the mildest turned to flint. 
             Lost were those standards whereby men at home
             Judge all things calmly; each became a law
             Unto himself amid these savage sights.—­
             But that which all men deemed could never be
             Came finally to pass, and we set foot
             On Colchis’ distant and mysterious strand. 
             Oh, hadst thou seen it, wrapped in murky clouds! 
             There day is night, and night a horror black,
             Its folk more dreadful even than the night. 
             And there I found—­her, who so hateful seems
             To thee.  In sooth, O king, she shone on me
             Like the stray sunbeam that some prisoner sees
             Pierce through the crannies of his lonely cell! 
             Dark though she seem to thee, in that black land
             Like some lone, radiant star she gleamed on me.

KING.  Yet wrong is never right, nor evil good.

JASON.  It was some god that turned her heart to me. 
             Fast friend was she in many a dangerous pass. 
             I saw how in her bosom love was born,
             Which yet her royal pride bade firm restrain;
             No word she spake betrayed her—­’twas her looks,
             Her deeds that told the secret.  Then on me
             A madness came, like to a rushing wind. 
             Her silence but inflamed me; for a new
             And warlike venture then I girded me,