PROLOGUE
SIN:
AN ODE
E rivers, and ye elemental caves,
Above the fountains of the broken ice,
Know ye what dragon lurks within your waves ?
Know ye the secret of the cockatrice ?
The basilisk whose shapeless brood
Take blood and muck for food ?
The sexless passion, the foul scorpion spawn ?
The witches and the evil-chanting ones
Who strangle stars and suns,
Eclipse the moon, and curse against the dawn ?
Know ye the haunts of death ?
The hole that harboureth
The sickening breath,
Whence all disease is bred, and all corruption drawn ?
Nay, these ye know not, or your waters cold
Would stagnate, shudder, putrefy for fear ;
Your echoes hate existence, and be rolled
Into the silent desolate, dead sphere.
_ For in those sightless lairs
No living spirit fares
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