The very atoms of the air, like pools,
Hold spawn-strown vermin-eggs! If one but speak,
But break the silence; if his breath but bear
One faintest puff from passionate heat within,
Lo, breaking open some accursèd shell,
It hatches forth foul broods of venomous life
That come, blown backward by the changing wind,
To haunt him who provok’d their devilish birth!
By day they sting our eyes, and make us weep;
By night steal through unguarded gates of sense,