Reiterated swift; the whirling flash

Cast sacred splendour, and the thunderbolt

Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth

Roar’d in the burning flame, and far and near

The trackless depth of forests crash’d with fire.

Yea—the broad earth burn’d red, the floods of Nile

Glow’d, and the desert waters of the sea.

Round and around the Titans’ earthy forms

Roll’d the hot vapour, and on fiery surge

Stream’d upward, swathing in one boundless blaze