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of War Whirl'd from the hated field his heavenly car: Indignant Pallas sought th'ethereal climes: And Furies learn'd to blush at human crimes. The thronging people, from the stately crown } Of each tall turret, look with horror down, } And general grief overwhelms th' unhappy town: } The old deplore their late remains of light; And mothers lead their infants from the sight. The ghosts of Cadmus' race, an impious crew, This prodigy of kindred guilt to view, Sent from the mansion of eternal hills, (A dark assembly) crowd Baeotia's hills; O'er day's fair face a gloomy twilight cast, And smile with joy to see their crimes surpass'd. FROM THE NINTH BOOK OF KLOPSTOCK'S MESSIAH. Where, in the midst of vast Infinitude, The arm creative stopp'd,--dread bound of space, Alien to God, and from his sight exil'd, Hell rolls her sulph'rous torrents. There, nor law Of motion, nor eternal Order reigns; But anarchy instead, and wild uproar, And ruinous tumult. Now with lightning speed Th' accursed sphere, with all its flames, flies up Into the void abrupt, and with its roar, With groans commixt, and shrieks, and boundless yells, Astounds the nearest stars: calm now and slow, With dreadful peace the universal waves Of sulphur roll, and pour a mightier flood On those tormented, their eternal crimes Avenging with fresh pain and sharper darts Of never-dying torture.--They meanwhile, The caitiff and his puissant guide, on wing Impetuous, skirt creation's flaming waste, And suns innumerable, and with prone flight Descending down, light sheer upon the coast Of outmost Night. The guard seraphic knows. That power ministrant, ---- ---- and with quick despatch Unfolds the Stygian doors, that jarring hoarse Slow on their adamantine hinges turn'd, And open'd to their ken the dread abyss, Unfathomably deep, mother of woes. Not mountains pil'd on mountains would close up Th' infernal entrance: they would but increase Its native ruggedness. No path leads down To those abhorred deeps. Close by the gate Impendent rocks with fiery whirlwinds cleft For ever fell into the deep abyss, Continuous ruin. ---- ---- On the hideous brink Of this great tomb, where Death nor sleeps, nor dies, In dreadful silence, with the wretch hell-d
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