Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 2.djvu/46

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They drink insatiate, still with pain renewed,Pain to destroy."So saying, her he ledForth from the dreadful cavern to a cell,Brilliant with gem-born light. The rugged wallsPart gleam'd with gold, and part with silver oreA milder radiance shone. The CarbuncleThere its strong lustre like the flamy sunShot forth irradiate; from the earth beneath,

    With toads and adders; there is burning oilPour'd down the drunkard's throat, the usurerIs forced to sup whole draughts of molten gold;There is the murderer for ever stabb'd,Yet can he never die; there lies the wantonOn racks of burning steel, whilst in his soulHe feels the torment of his raging lust.'Tis Pity she's a Whore. 
    I wrote this passage when very young, and the idea, trite as it is, was new to me. It occurs I believe in most descriptions of hell, and perhaps owes its origin to the fate of Crassus.
    After this picture of horrors, the reader may perhaps be pleased with one more pleasantly fanciful:

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