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Thus having said, he paused, and looked around,
Motioning silence; then, when all were still,—
With visage changed, as 'twere from fire to cloud,
And voice no longer thundering, but low,
And harsh as grinding of the earthquake's jaws,—
Thus the dread sentence spake.

“The pestilent spot
Cut we now out for ever! To his doom
Be the apostate borne. On that one thought
Which so rejoiceth him,—his last act on earth,—
There let him feast: there let him evermore
Confess his sin, and call upon his God,
For pity, and pardon. Omnipresence, there,
Will ne'er be present: there, the all-seeing eye
Never will see him: there, Omniscience
Nought will know of him: there, Omnipotence
Powerless will be to help! Even this dead orb,
Haply, beyond the reach is of God's ken;
And, therefore, as our prison-house was chosen,
That we might vex him not: but, in that depth
Of uttermost space where to this false one goes,—
For half the past eternity hath been
Not even a shadow of God. Beelzebub,
To thee that doleful prison-house is known:
For thou with me, long ere from heaven we fell,
Didst pierce the abyss; if limit might be found,
Curious to know, and what: till, wearied out,
We paused, pondering return. Then, as thou know'st,
A voice came to us, though no form we saw,—
Telling of orb enormous, not far thence,
Eldest of Old Creation. When we spake,
Enquiring, answer came not; but all space
Heaved like a sea. Awe-struck, though fearing not,
On went we then; and soon the presence felt
Of the great sun-corpse. If eternity
Beginning could have had,—before that date,
Seemed it, must this have been; beyond all else,
So with the mountain load of ages crushed,
The ghastly ruin appeared. Take with thee, then,
Of Spirits the strongest, three: and bear away
That hateful to his home. In lowest depth,—
Core of the hideous ruin,—make his grave;
Living, through all eternity to live,
There bury him; as bones in hardest rock
Sealed up,—there, motionless, for ever fix!”