That land of ruins, through whose sky of brass

Hate's harpy shrieked; and in whose iron grass

The hydra hissed of undestroyable Sin.

XVI

And there at last, behold, the House of Doom,—

Red, as if Hell had glared it into life,

Blood-red, and howling with incessant strife,—

With burning battlements, towered through the gloom.

XVII

And throned within sat Darkness.—Who might gaze