第15章 14

Another part in Squadrons and gross Bands, [ 570 ] On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world, if any Clime perhaps Might yield them easier habitation, bend Four ways thir flying March, along the Banks Of four infernal Rivers that disgorge [ 575 ] Into the burning Lake thir baleful streams;

Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate, Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, namd of lamentation loud Heard on the ruful stream; fierce Phlegeton [ 580 ] Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Farr off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe the River of Oblivion roules

Her watrie Labyrinth, whereof who drinks, Forthwith his former state and being forgets, [ 585 ] Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen Continent Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems [ 590 ]

Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where Armies whole have sunk: the parching Air Burns frore, and cold performs th effect of Fire. [ 595 ] Thither by harpy-footed Furies haild, At certain revolutions all the damnd

Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce, From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice [ 600 ] Thir soft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infixt, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. They ferry over this Lethean Sound

Both to and fro, thir sorrow to augment, [ 605 ] And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to loose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, All in one moment, and so neer the brink; But fate withstands, and to oppose th attempt [ 610 ] Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The Ford, and of it self the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on In confusd march forlorn, th adventrous Bands [ 615 ] With shuddring horror pale, and eyes agast Viewd first thir lamentable lot, and found No rest: through many a dark and drearie Vaile

They passd, and many a Region dolorous, Oer many a Frozen, many a fierie Alpe, [ 620 ] Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death, A Universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, [ 625 ]

Abominable, inutterable, and worse Then Fables yet have feignd, or fear conceivd, Gorgons and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.