“Far from me, were I able, to express Agonies of the Lost, their hopelessness! Enough their names who sinned;— here, hurled to Dis By lightning at bottom of the abyss Roll Earth’s sons the Titans; and I saw there The Aloeid Twins, who scaled upper air, Piling mount on mount; by brute strength alone Tried to storm Olympus, and Jove dethrone Salmoneus too, and the price his pride Cost him, for choosing impious to ride Mimicking lightnings’ flash, the thunder’s roar Fool! to ape Jove with his steeds as they bore His car through Elis, torches as they cast Their smoky gleams, trumpets’ quavering blast. Brief the trickeries of that crazed career, Joy for man on Earth’s stage to act God’s peer; And swift climax when, amid storms, there fell Bolts that drove the pretender down to Hell! Near him Earth’s nursling, Tityus, I saw, Stretched o’er nine acres, with, to fill its maw, A hook-beaked vulture clawing at his breast For the liver e’er eaten, ne’er at rest; Since growing ever, putting on new flesh; So, the Thing gropes for dainties ever fresh. Myriad Crime’s forms—Dis for all has room. Kinship that should nurse kindness, rings its doom; Virtues that have turned strangers into friends, Oft change brothers and sisters into fiends. Children, instead of vying to maintain Parents, have beaten them, and even slain. A traitor to human nature and hearth Seduces her who owes to him her birth. Lawyers, snapping ties sacred as of blood, Have spun about their clients webs of fraud. Misers have gone on hatching gold from gold— A host of them—refusing to withhold Grains from the hoard, although it were to save Nearest that should be dearest from the grave. Guests—till schooled here—have thought theft of a wife Well worth the risk of forfeiture of life. Liegemen, loved, aggrandized, have drawn the sword, Himself had girded on, to stab their Lord. Statesmen have abused a fond people’s trust, To sell and tread its freedom in the dust. Others, having dammed law-making at the source, Opened, closed locks as gapes or shuts a purse. The course of life cannot be ruled so straight, Homes so pure, opportunities so great, Reasons so full and plain for doing well, But that they may be used as roads to Hell. ”Penalties”?— As manifold, various. The Lapithæ know it, Pirithous, Tantalus, Ixion. I have held my breath At black rock threatening, not, welcome Death, But—for Shadows may feel—mangled, crushed bones, Dragging eternally over jagged stones.— That, in act to fall, ever seemed in air.— And I have seen Hell’s cooks a feast prepare; Spread couches with purple, and on gold-rests. Then—dainties in view—as the famished guests Seated themselves in hungry haste to sup, The eldest Fury, screaming, started up From where she lay, and, waving torch alight Swept banquet, banqueters, into cold night.