The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme The witch of Shiloh, the last of the Wampanoags, the gentle earl, the enchanted voyage |
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 | The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme |  |
IX
It was as though a second birth
Of demonkind had come on earth,
Such mongrel, goblin clamors rose,
Such roar of ragings, wail of woes:
Insane blasphemings, madder prayers;
Infernal paeans, fierce despairs;
Derisive laughters, bacchant yells;
Exultings of triumphant hells;
Defiances of crests to crests;
Appeals for mercy, hoarse behests;
Laments of monstrous agonies;
Huzzas of vast debaucheries;
Refrains that ever seemed to weep;
Responsive snarls of Titan sleep;
Mad dialogues of surge with surge,
Half heard athwart a booming dirge;
Extatic bellows from abysses,
Commixed with groaning; snaky hisses;
Discordant babblings; senseless bleats
Of griffins; hoots of crazed afreets;
Mysterious sentences, half spoken;
Weird oracles in accents broken;
A Cosmos shouting without thought;
Replies of Chaos, meaning naught;
The brutish language of the great
Sea-furies inarticulate;
The strivings of the Deep to reach
Some anthropoid, or devilish speech.
Of demonkind had come on earth,
Such mongrel, goblin clamors rose,
Such roar of ragings, wail of woes:
Insane blasphemings, madder prayers;
Infernal paeans, fierce despairs;
Derisive laughters, bacchant yells;
Exultings of triumphant hells;
Defiances of crests to crests;
Appeals for mercy, hoarse behests;
Laments of monstrous agonies;
Huzzas of vast debaucheries;
Refrains that ever seemed to weep;
Responsive snarls of Titan sleep;
Mad dialogues of surge with surge,
Half heard athwart a booming dirge;
166
Commixed with groaning; snaky hisses;
Discordant babblings; senseless bleats
Of griffins; hoots of crazed afreets;
Mysterious sentences, half spoken;
Weird oracles in accents broken;
A Cosmos shouting without thought;
Replies of Chaos, meaning naught;
The brutish language of the great
Sea-furies inarticulate;
The strivings of the Deep to reach
Some anthropoid, or devilish speech.
| The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme | |