Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/46

Brood over in their dim and sullen souls.
Perpetual seas of broad purpureal flame,
With intervals of momentary night,
Dark as the darkness of a man born blind,
Possess the sky's unfathomable concave;
Wherein appalling growths of more intense
Fire with seven branches, like gigantic trees,
Spring up and vanish! . . . .
Behold yon perpendicular crags, like flame,
Whose melaphyre and porphyry condor crests
Threaten the valleys! whose profound ravines
Of deadly twilight ne'er a sun may see,
Unsoften'd of a tiniest herb or flower!
Now furious torrents toss white manes of foam
Down their long solitudes; the firmament
Sunders, and pours dense watery deluges,
Illuminate with deluges of light;
Howls the tornado; 'tis the reign of chaos!
Great lions lashing tails in grim despair,
Mingling their roar with elemental thunder,
Climb from the floods, or struggling drown therein!