Whate'er thou art which in my vitals lurk'st,
Come forth. Why with a hidden agony1250
Dost thou afflict my heart? What Scythian sea
Beneath the frozen north, what Tethys slow,
What Spanish Calpe nigh the Moorish shore
Begot and brought thee forth? O evil dire!
Art thou some crested serpent brandishing
Its hideous head; or some fell thing of ill1255
As yet unknown to me, produced perchance
From Hydra's poisonous gore, or left on earth