Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/96

88 And, ere falt'ring noon wings itself

To shadow peaks and portals bright

That scyle veiled augueries of Hell,

An agate light arrays this sea,

Each glabrous fay sports with an elf,

A one-eyed owl blinks at the light,

A green-horned toad croaks from a well.

Then pageantries fade in the gloom:

'Mid Cyclopean storms unstunned

Dank treasure-houses spill their quest

And march with thunder from far West;

Whilst lightning flashes skirr the noon,

Giant moans ascend from shoals unsunned,

The turf, Tartarus' coals of rest—

Helots to the haunts of Sin's crest—

Whereon jimp jinn ride to hell's mouth,

The silence stir with oaths of might;

Vile dragons roar at a zimb's sting;

A swarthy gump leers at the damn'd:

All soom to mountains of the South

Where sultry winds war with the light,