Satan, yawning on his brazen seat,

Fondles a screaming thing his fiends have flayed.

A sick enchantress scans the dark to curse,

Beside a caldron vext with harlots’ blood,

The stars of that red Sign which spells her doom.

halls

In which dead Merlin’s prowling ape hath spilt

A vial squat whose scarlet venom crawls

To ciphers bright and terrible.

ere the tomb-thrown echoings have ceased,