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