The Fire Fiend was hungry as Moloch of old,
And knew not the meaning of pity:
The new Edax Rerum; voraciously bold,
His maw a red gulf that was ready to hold
The calcined remains of a City.
That Phlegethon-gorge might have served as the grave
Of man and his works altogether;
But Shaw, the new Life-guardsman, swordless but brave,
Was ever at hand to extinguish and save,
And hold the Red Ogre in tether.