Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 2.djvu/46

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

34

They drink insatiate, still with pain renewed,
Pain to destroy."
So saying, her he led
Forth from the dreadful cavern to a cell,
Brilliant with gem-born light. The rugged walls
Part gleam'd with gold, and part with silver ore
A milder radiance shone. The Carbuncle
There its strong lustre like the flamy sun
Shot forth irradiate; from the earth beneath,



    With toads and adders; there is burning oil
    Pour'd down the drunkard's throat, the usurer
    Is forced to sup whole draughts of molten gold;
    There is the murderer for ever stabb'd,
    Yet can he never die; there lies the wanton
    On racks of burning steel, whilst in his soul
    He feels the torment of his raging lust.
    'Tis Pity she's a Whore. 

    I wrote this passage when very young, and the idea, trite as it is, was new to me. It occurs I believe in most descriptions of hell, and perhaps owes its origin to the fate of Crassus.
    After this picture of horrors, the reader may perhaps be pleased with one more pleasantly fanciful: