And now the reeling earth, by not a swain
Possest, is by the sea’s profundity
Prest, at her farthest limit, where the sun
400 (His ray out-measured) divides the orb,
And where, when traversed is the world, the stars
Are hidden. Ether thickens. O’er the light
Spreads sable darkness; and the latest flames
Stagnate in secret rills. A place there is
405 Whose nature is with sealed penalties
Fiery, and a dreadful marsh white-hot
With heats infernal, where, in furnaces
Horrific, penal deed roars loud, and seethes,
And, rushing into torments, is up-caught
410 By the flame’s vortex wide; by savage wave
And surge the turbid sand all mingled is
With miry bottom. Hither will be sent,
Groaning, the captive crowd of evil ones,
And wickedness (the sinful body’s train)
415 To burn! Great is the beating there of breasts,
By bellowing of grief accompanied;
Wild is the hissing of the flames, and thence
The ululation of the sufferers!
And flames, and limbs sonorous, will outrise
420 Afar: more fierce will the fire burn; and up
To th’ upper air the groaning will be borne.
Then human progeny its bygone deeds
Of ill will weigh; and will begin to stretch
Heavenward its palms; and then will wish to know
425 The Lord, whom erst it would not know, what time
To know Him had proved useful to them. There,
His life’s excesses, handiworks unjust,
And crimes of savage mind, each will confess,
And at the knowledge of the impious deeds
430 Of his own life will shudder. And now first,
Whoe’er erewhile cherished ill thoughts of God;
Had worshipped stones unsteady, lyingly
Pretending to divinity; hath e’er
Made sacred to gore-stained images
435 Altars; hath voiceless pictured figures feared;
Hath slender shades of false divinity
Revered; whome’er ill error onward hath
Seduced; whoe’er was an adulterer,
Or with the sword had slain his sons; whoe’er
440 Had stalked in robbery; whoe’er by fraud
His clients had deferred; whoe’er with mind