on cippus where Set lies;
Where vanquished Soldans sleep each night,
A greenish fungus-torch doth gleam.
Giant battles have been fought in hell,
Principalities rot in dust,
The tombs of kings speak of the past
When Incubi reigned with a rod.
Unnumbered bones adorn each dell--
Where Rulers lie there stands a bust;
Blood-stained the hands of him whose task
Is blasting varlets like a god.
And when some spirit stalks thro' space
In quest of vaults--Temporal lees!
Treads in the grandeur of dank hell,
A batter'd shape that shakes its frame,
Spacious regions Courage chase,
Winds drive it to Misery's seas,
Laughs ascend from sequestered well,
Thro' shadows vague it hears its shame.
And tomb-thrown groans and sighs we hear--
Tho' midnight's near and afrite's sleep:
An Owl, perturbed at some strange sound,
Scares bats in space and wings for domes.
All signs of woe hath flown with fear,
No maidens heave their breasts and weep,
All wrecks of Flesh lie on the ground,
Removed from shoals where Terror moans.
On skulls that some in Death hath left,
Croak toads to lizards in a well;
In cajons that the Ancient's digged,
Swim snakes that hiss at burning oils:
And bats and owls that offal cleft,
Proclaim their burdens to a dell,
Whilst crafts that some strange witch hath rigged,
Bring slaves unto this Cesspool's coils.

When carcants gleam like scarlet foam,
And hiss of pyres froth at each light
In dongas vext as jazels flare
From splinter'd tombs of Kings in dust,
A straggling mist that cleft Hell's dome,
Peers at the gloom and strobic sight
Of charnel shard as vypers blare
Wrathfully at each Monarch's bust.
And doleful dirges rake the gloom,
A whisper'd sin sobs at the wrecks;
Graven imps clasp papyrus old
And rant each Body's deeds of shame.
Come from a dank and sunken womb
All stranded ghouls on keels and decks
Where Cyclops fought as Vellum told
In cyphers bright, sprung from each flame,
Make hideous eyes at the night.
And terrors that Tartarus bred
Assail each kingdom treblefold:
A gangrel clan that someone flayed,
Skirr thro' the dungeoned halls in flight
And seek the caverns of the dead.
Where tapers gleam like virgin gold
The tombs of dead queens are arrayed:
There, too, a witch unfurls her cowl
And scans the shambling hordes to curse,
And with the light that cyclones split,
She jug