Page:Paradise Lost (1667).djvu/70

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Where Armies whole have ſunk: the parching Air
Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of Fire.
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail’d,
At certain revolutions all the damn’d
Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce,
600From Beds of raging Fire to ſtarve in Ice
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,
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;
610But fate withſtands, and to oppoſe th’ attempt
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 confus’d march forlorn, th’ adventrous Bands
With ſhuddring horror pale, and eyes agaſt
View’d firſt thir lamentable lot, and found
No reſt: through many a dark and drearie Vaile
They paſs’d, and many a Region dolorous,
620O’re many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe,
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,