Page:Orion, an epic poem - Horne (1843, 3rd edition).djvu/124

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
118
Orion.
[Book III.
His second purpose this: beneath the earth,
So might the Father of the Gods give aid,
To build a dungeon for the God of War,
Wherein, confined in a tumultuous sleep,
The visions of his madness should present
The roar of battles and its sanguine joys,
Its devastations, glories, and vain graves.
Here might he gloat on death, while: o'er his head
The sea-wide corn fields, smiled in golden waves.

The last, would need Poseidon's trident hand,
Which, fervent prayers and filial offerings
Would fail not to obtain; whereby a blow,—
Such as had lifted out of the frothed sea
Delos,—Kalliste, with its fathomless bay,—
Mountains, and coral rocks,—repeated oft,
Might many mountains cause at once to rise,
Higher and higher, till their summits kissed
The clouds. Then Eos, casting forth her robe
From peak to peak, and her immortal breath
Combining and sustaining that bright floor,
A web of perfect skill, and guileless art,
Unlike the dark artificers below,—
Large space for mortals of the earth would thus