Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/64

 58 REDEMPTION.

Raise their broad backs, or skim with arrowy speed.

Perchance a spark, struck from projecting flint,

Or brand, left burning where some wayfarers

Prepared their frugal meal, finds ready culm ;

The spark to flames grows, flames, with lambent tongues,

And savage appetite, lap up their prey ;

Wide o'er the wasteful, vegetable sea,

Roll their huge volumes, dense with smoke and heat,

Whilst thund'ring roars, vibrating, shake the ground,

And bello'wing herds rush madly 'fore the storm.

When satiate, pass'd, the blacken'd stubble stands,

Thick sown, o'er all the grimy vast condensed,

Shrivel'd and curl'd, with sparkling fires inspersed.

Not less, but greater, greater and more dense,

Th' imbanded demons stand, then onward press,

With bestial roars, and slimy, slav'ring trail ;

Not wanting doleful music, notes, harsh beat

To measured tread for sounding brass, deep groans

Of dark despair; in place of dulcet sounds

From lutes and soft recorders, wails of woe,

And moans of damned souls, that ruin'd lay

In those infernal dens, the hapless fruits

Pluck'd by successful cheats, play'd on weak man.

There lay the primal fratricide, with brand

Of heaVn deep graven on his front; nor far,

That godless crew, who turn'd deaf ear to voice

Of righteous Noe, and without penance

Sank beneath the flood ; there they of Sodom

And Gomorrha, reaping their just reward,

Onan, and all the like, who stain their souls

With nameless crimes ; Pharao and his hosts,

That Israel pursued, o'erwhelmed now

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