Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/64

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems590
Of ancient pile, all else deep snow and ice;
A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
At certain revolutions, all the damned
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice600
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine,
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethear sound,
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and so near the brink.
But Fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt,
Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards611
The ford, and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled