Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/89

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
A TRIP THROUGH HELL
81

Friends to the Doom! as sorrowed soul,

Repress'd with rage, knelt down and prayed,

Rise from the hollowed void a moan

As sins upon papyrus, writ

In vyper's blood—Jems in this shoal!

Confess'd by men whom friends have flayed,

Teem in the wind-swept, shatter'd strands—

Blind batter'd keels that know no rest

'Mid surge of moans that tombs have spilt.

Upon the air that Doom hath wrung,

Beyond the fields where numberless hands

Point to the headland of the West,

Lights and vague shadows spell no guilt

Unto the wraiths whom Torpor stung.

And all night-thoughts in this strange sphere,

Tred in the skirts of waters cold,

Of hell-winds that the beaches swirl

Dome-high within this shrunken realm;

And crested billows toss giant Fear

Unto each culprit's hidden fold:

The studded roof where flares a pearl,