Alas! all earthly things have been revised Even Learning’s careful patron and Protector, The Inquisition, is disorganized. The world is round, and has a Radius Vector; There’s not a ghost on duty, nor a spectre; Sinbad is dead, and almost any loafer Can go, in steamers, round Cape Horn to Ophir.
Then, on the blackness of the Night’s deep chasm, The anchored earth lay, floating, like a floor:— Beneath, the shadow and the veiled phantasm Their local habitation had of yore; But each veiled shadow, and each dreadful phasm Rose with the night, above the western shore— When, through the void, all flame and ruddy gold The Day-god’s cavalcade, descending, rolled.
Without the continent, old Ocean’s torrent Extended to the earth’s remotest verge: Both jovial Tritons, and the Powers abhorrent, Were seized of provinces upon the surge; And from Arcturus to the Southern gorge Black tempests bearing old Eolus’ warrant Patrolled the seas in search of ships or steamers Breaking the closes of the ocean emirs.
Through the dense night, archangels of strong wing, From heaven roving, saw the earth’s vast plane— The kingdoms of the Pole, all glimmering— The twisted rivers, and the enfolding main— The shining gulfs which dent the Indian chain, And smiled to see the hollow planets swing Above that dim abyss within whose core Were hooked the world’s deep sunken anchors four.
Large breakers tumbling on the Arabian shoals, With wooded regions by the Caucasian gaps— The town of Ebony, the land of Gholes, (Which are omitted in the modern maps)— All these I saw; and hills with misty caps, Where dwell the Glactophagi—blameless souls: The wizard spoke—I was with awe oppressed: _The words like ghosts rose from his sounding chest_—
“These mountains I have watched a thousand years; And I _have writ one thousand solemn books:_ _Who reads them shall be wise!_ Hell’s fiercest Peers Have oft essayed to burst these bolted rocks; And, under Baal-Phaxi’s deepest blocks, Mines they have digged, and loaded, and exploded. Yea, Mogophur, the Lord of Babylon, Came with his captains and a countless rabble on—
“Of spearmen, chariots, and Tartarian riders, _Whose faces were the likeness of a flame_, And elephants crept through the pass like spiders, And the whole College of Magicians came, Who caused sharp earthquakes and much whizzing flame By means of diagrams, and long dividers, And thus exclaimed each iron-harnessed savage, ‘The unseen land of Elpholen we’ll ravage.’