Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/111

Rh A leering fiend blinks at the sky.

Beyond the realm of rulling Care,

Caressed by suns and moons most fair,

We fain would hye, all wrecks, and lie

In dusky forests dells and vales;

Beyond the Asian skies of blue,

Where sports an elf, mayhap a hare,

We fain would haste, each soul, and die,

Unfurl all dreams and pinioned sails,

And sleep unmourned in haunts we knew,

Now wracks and domes stare at each soul,

Giant goddards leak a rubic foam;

Blind forges hold Contagion's breath;

A Morgan longs for earthly home.

,Tis so with hell's eternal shoal

Where skinks eat flesh from wenches' bone;

Tis thus with us purloined by Death,

Infernal doom that spells a moan.

Ten thousand years was Doom crown'd King;

Sporadic prayers each gnarl'd one lisped;