A FANTASIE OF DREAMS.
Reading edition
Dreams of Death, Wherein the Breath Of pulsing Life wavereth ’Twixt earth and sky, And fluttering Things sail by In hideous forms that cause the eye To quail in fright ... Dark Things of Night With bat-like wings, and eyes as bright As flames of Hell Wherein they dwell To torment souls with wild revel. With bony claws of razored steel They clutch the naked soul and seal Thereon their hellish dies ... ... Midst eldritch yelps, and cries Of fiendish triumph—echoed by the skies— They bear the gasping soul, Livid and seared, through voids that roll Away in endless horrors up to the goal Of all lost souls: and there They wrench their way thro’ putrid air Of brimstone,—foul smells that bear The Soul on seas of thirsty flames That surge and swell ... ... And there the soul forever broils And roasts and boils Within the blackened gates of Hell. John Northern Hilliard.