Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/43

Rh Where nymphs call her Christian name.

Where purple mists like poppies bloom—

Dank dulse within green rivers cold!

A flayed and sobbing maid doth lie;

Eternal curse of bedlam night

Speak of sepulchral haunts of Doom;

Unnumberéd skulls their woes have told

To studded domes and opaque sky

Beneath the Arching vales of light.

Alight with fires red and green

That show the coffers of each tomb,

Jarbling vandals rake the night-coals,

Shales and husks; and, ere reigning night

Provokes each harlot's fitful dream

To cleave the casements of king Doom

And reach the swoll'n, acrid shoals,

Where stationed Mounts are penciled white

That mark the maw of raging hell,

Till, eyes awake stare at each flame

Unsung and, on boulders that burn,

Peer at two lordly squats in dust