Aisles and abysses; leagues no man explores, <br />Of rock that labyrinths and night that drips; <br />Where everlasting silence broods, with lips <br />Of adamant, o'er earthquake-builded floors. <br />Where forms, such as the Demon-World adores, <br />Laborious water carves; whence echo slips <br />Wild-tongued o'er pools where petrifaction strips <br />Her breasts of crystal from which crystal pours. <br />Here where primordial fear, the Gorgon, sits <br />Staring all life to stone in ghastly mirth, <br />I seem to tread, with awe no tongue can tell, <br />Beneath vast domes, by torrent-tortured pits, <br />'Mid wrecks terrific of the ruined Earth, <br />An ancient causeway of forgotten Hell.<br /><br />Madison Julius Cawein<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/caverns/
