Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/109

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A TRIP THROUGH HELL
101

Cold as shambling shapes of men kiss

Trembling women before the show,

Wraiths point to where their daughters weep.


To lie in vaults and chambers cold

'Mid tombs that ghouls in hatred wrought!

To sleep in dank Subjection's shard

'Mid hanuts of purple sins and shales

A Thirst gyre! as bleak, untold,

As ever haunted woman sought

For incubi on scented sward

As bleary owls and vulpine wails

Rake stationed nights and seas forlorn,

Until, when star-linkt domes are red,

And Oceans' shells and sands grow white,

Dusky isles and lights—Twins of the Gloom!

Betray each soul cursed and forsworn;

Or awed, at Twilights' scarlet bed,

When nightshades blot the conjured light

As javels vomit death and doom,

Dank vapours veil the seaward flight