Chapter 4

There garnet wrought and purple lights Shine thro' poisoned vials of age On churning pomps of casements old, Where, when lofty aisles and halls Ring rich with tenor runes in nights Made solemn by a hoary sage With darkling eyes that gleam like gold, A prowling vandal storms the walls, Nursed with dank venom broths and oils. A blood-shot minx hunts for a man; In stys and broken pyxs she peers For him who ruined her honour, soul; A harlot doomed in clinging coils That now her longings curse and damn, Squats on a skull and pulls her ears: Or, just when she finds her life-goal,-- A cow'ring cur hid from the sight Beneath a putrid mount of bone, And tombs grow dank as rising sun Makes red each dragon in the West, She splits his heart and rasps with might, A curse that rides the surging foam, A message that this dastard son Dies longing for a fatal quest-- Surcease of soul and conscience lost! Then rants she sins unto each tomb That sweat the lusts of those in dust, And scarlet foam and hiss of oils That her black deed to domes hath tossed, Break into writhing life and bloom As iron crowns and ceptres rust Of fall'n monarchs crossed in coils. Anear, two carcants glare like gold; Afar, a ruby's light of red Straggles thro' the pellicléd mist, And to its vinewed dell haste I, To catch the fleeting whispers told To marble-lamps and head-stones, said, By demon-husbands as I list, To hold each mongrel harlot's sigh. There, then, in tatter'd rags and hair, Coarse-grained of features once so fine, She spews her 'evil wrath and rage Into the wriggling hands and face Of him who lifts his voice to swear A curse that stirs the air, whose time (Tho' to king Satan speeds a page) Hath come as Vengeance wins the race. When crimson skies and stellor eyes Swathed palace domes and turrets strong, Her lips kiss'd mine, and mine did hers, Ere evil smote her virgin soul. And livid lights of bleeding dyes (Whenas she prods him with her prong) Make terrible her words so terse That brands this scoundrel on this shoal. And mutt'ring quick a ghastly oath As turgid mists veil shadows vague, She plucks his lying tongue that stole Her husband's love and honour old, And smites him stark and cold, tho' loath, It peers to me her demon-ague That binds her to this perjured soul, She drinks his gore from carvels cold And leers with fiendish lips at him, Now tossed in phosphorescent holes. And as I list to aspen cries, Veiled augueries in vapours hie And spell these tokens to each Inn: Kingdoms, empires, nations, souls, Shall miss the haunts of Paradise, And in Subjection, crumbling, lie. And when the regions, wrapped in light By pillared dreams and pomps supreme As curses stir the charnel air That hide dank caverns deep and bold, A battling monster smites the night As lepers wink their orbs and dream Of maidens that the men forswear, Of templed vaults now stiff in cold. And when a dim, unholy tomb, Wreathes odours damp and vapours strong-- Heirs of the Doomed! as savage domes Drip palsied sweat and carnal howls Assail the stationed halls of gloom, Where imps and devils march along Beside a monarch's crumbling bones As witches don their filthy cowls And rant their sins thro' whistling halls, Shake women fists at fleeing souls And wail for bâtard children dead; Whilst quickly from the burning dust Ascends an oath that storms the walls And rasps the distant mounts and shoals Until each pyre glows scarlet red, Each idol leers with wicked lust. Forth from rubies flare scented fumes As beacons glare and bubbles hiss To crimson strands and altars' glow Of burning oils in carvels deep, Where; when Torture's bloody dome looms Cold as shambling shapes of men kiss Trembling women before the show, Wraiths point to where their daughters weep.

To lie in vaults and chambers cold 'Mid tombs that ghouls in hatred wrought! To sleep in dank Subjection's shard 'Mid hanuts of purple sins and shales A Thirst gyre! as bleak, untold, As ever haunted woman sought For incubi on scented sward As bleary owls and vulpine wails Rake stationed nights and seas forlorn, Until, when star-linkt domes are red, And Oceans' shells and sands grow white, Dusky isles and lights--Twins of the Gloom! Betray each soul cursed and forsworn; Or awed, at Twilights' scarlet bed, When nightshades blot the conjured light As javels vomit death and doom, Dank vapours veil the seaward flight Of Satellites gray 'gainst the night. Till, eyes in fear peer at profounds Unfathomed and, in vales unsunned, See Cyclops battling in the light, 'Mid scarlet foam and gorey sight Of bloody domes and hybrid hounds Of Titan's forges, cold, unstunned. Oh, vain each sinner's prayer of hope! Alas, alas, all thoughts of future trust! The bloody lanes of reigning Doom Are lasting tombs for souls accurst. When in a pool we lie and mope As vaulted temples rot in dust, Vague shapes and forms ascend to spell Infernal chasms of black gloom. When crested waves of billowed sea Are lashed by winds from foreign shoal, And foam-set breasts are dashed on high As silence holds the voiceless air, Unsavoury dreams haunt each lee-- The maw of Hell receives a soul! A leering fiend blinks at the sky.

Beyond the realm of rulling Care, Caressed by suns and moons most fair, We fain would hye, all wrecks, and lie In dusky forests dells and vales; Beyond the Asian skies of blue, Where sports an elf, mayhap a hare, We fain would haste, each soul, and die, Unfurl all dreams and pinioned sails, And sleep unmourned in haunts we knew, Now wracks and domes stare at each soul, Giant goddards leak a rubic foam; Blind forges hold Contagion's breath; A Morgan longs for earthly home. 'Tis so with hell's eternal shoal Where skinks eat flesh from wenches' bone; 'Tis thus with us purloined by Death, Infernal doom that spells a moan. Ten thousand years was Doom crown'd King; Sporadic prayers each gnarl'd one lisped; Despotic sway all subjects curs'd When Hell was new and Earth unborn: Now souls of man in torture sing, Each Idol's glyph by damn'd one's kiss'd. Who then shall say who is the worst, A vyper's brood or man forsworn?

Transcriber's Notes:

Spelling has not been altered from the original.

The misprint "mournfnl" on page 31 has been corrected to "mournful."

The unmatched parenthesis on page 76 is presented as in the original.