University of Virginia Library

IV.

Ha! Maria! can they bear
Now, thy frame recoiling there?—
Whence the glare? far, far below
Infernal seas of liquid fire—
Raving, roaring, sullen, flow,
Lashing fierce to hell-wrought ire!
High their steam sulphureous wreathes,
Taints the air where mortal breathes,
Its vapory hangings wildly surging,
From whose red, fiery clouds emerging
Blue, quivering lightnings wildly shoot
To guide the wanderer's trembling foot.
Through a disjointed bridge of stone
O'er that dread lake all tottering thrown,
With frequent gap and yawning rest
Betray'd its tides each glittering cleft;—
Behind—convulsions tear the womb
Of earth, as in her thrall of doom.
And now th' unlovely light that prob'd
Those warring realms in shadows rob'd,
Show'd heaving mounds or whelming steeps
Down the interminable deeps
Thund'ring in swift career;—
Before—a half-supported mass
Shot high across that lurid pass,
And spann'd the chasm drear,
Abruptly o'er the top it ceas'd—
And leap the rest—who may!
Yet still the tumult wild increas'd,
Still melts the mass away;
Down hissing in the flame it fell,
Each sound, of death the awful knell,
That warns the wanderer of the hour
Of fiery doom—of fiendish power!