Painted in the fitful fire a frightful, fiendish, flaming face!

III.

On the red hearth’s reddest centre, from a blazing knot of oak,

Seemed to gibe and grin this Phantom when in terror I awoke,

And my slumberous eyelids straining as I staggered to the floor,

Still in that dread Vision seeming, turned my eyes toward the gleaming

Hearth, and—there! oh, God! I saw it! and from out its flaming Jaw it

Spat a ceaseless, seething, hissing, bubbling, gurgling stream of gore!

IV.

Speechless; struck with stony silence; frozen to the floor I stood,