To cool their beaks and talons in my blood—

All, all have gathered, and the wingless rear,

With rank on rank of foul, colossal Worms,

Like pillars of embattled night and flame,

Looms on the wide horizon! From the van,

I hear the shriek of wyvers, loud and shrill

As tempests in a broken fane, and roar

Of sphinxes, like the unrelenting toll

Of bells from tow’rs infernal. Cloud on cloud,

They arch the zenith, and a dreadful wind