Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/87

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A TRIP THROUGH HELL
79

Beneath a dome and shatter'd light,

A sign that all are lost and doomed.

Toward jagged heights black oaths float,

To skies of jasper light, adverse

To Doom's rich fold, prayers reach thro' night

That some malignant monster tombed

In phantom-blankets stark and bold.

All mountain-chasms growl and roar;

Each ocean froths black waves of lust;

King Thunder rasps the trembling night;

Giant lightnings split their fevered hold;

Encharneled guilt hastes to this shore

As hydras squirm along the dust,

Affrighted at this Cauldron's sight.


For we are unsubstantial wrecks

Beyond the pale of scale and fin;

Adventurers tossed by king Time

In region 'neath supernal skies.

To dungeoned knells where venom specks

The robes of priestesses with sin,