Thou sin-cursed city of the stricken plain,

Whose heinous lust all after time shall shame,

'Twas thine to rouse Jehovah's awful ire,

And test the strength of Heaven's revengeful fire.

Thy senseless lust and crime had spread

Till virtue, hope and shame had fled;

Degraded youth and tottering age

Could not appease thy senseless rage;

Thy leacherous sons, that roamed at night,

Were human only to the sight;

Their motto was hell's direst fruit:

"Debase the man, exhalt the brute!"

One man alone of all thy teeming millions sate,

And pondered on thy sin with deathless hate;

His righteous soul was vexed from day to day,

And strove in vain to turn you from your way.

He dwelt among you as a child of God,

And in the path of honored wedlock trod.

You, dead to nature and to nature's voice,

Spurned woman and made man your choice!

And desecrated, with your impious lust,

The masterpiece God had formed from dust!

Till woman, shorn of all her natural power,

Was cast aside, like some discarded flower,

And stormed insulted heaven with hourly cry,

Till God beheld you with His searching eye,

And sent His angels in avenging haste

Your sin to punish and your land to waste.

The son of Horan met these at the gate,

And begged them at his frugal board to wait;

At first refused, they after turn aside,

And 'neath a righteous roof content abide.

They share his food and list with eager ear

As Lot recounts each nightly scene of fear;

When lust runs riot in the open streets,

And man with man in strange communion meets.

The men of Sodom learn, with kindling eye,

The stranger's presence, and in haste draw nigh.

Men, young and old, with equal ardor burn,

And, with unholy lust, towards these strangers yearn.

They call the patriarch with an angry shout,

And bid him bring the hallowed strangers out,

That they may satisfy their lawless lust

And trample decency in sinful dust.

He, taught from infancy in Mosaic Law,

Regarded heaven's High Ruler still with awe;

And shuddered with indignant fear

As these vile shouts assailed his ear.

He left his house and closed the door behind,

And to the rabble thus he eased his mind:

"Ye men of Sodom! once in life do right,

Nor do this wickedness in heaven's sight!

Two virgin daughters 'neath my roof reside,

Till now a father's care and mother's pride;

Take them and do whatever you deem right,

But lay no impious hand upon my guests tonight.

The laws of hospitality, by Moses taught,

Harms not a stranger whom our roof has sought.

They know the law, who now reside within,

And with horror view your awful sin!"

"Ye men of Sodom! who this stranger gave

The right to judge us and our will to brave?

We kindly took a homeless wanderer in,

And dare he brand our greatest pleasure sin?

Shall empty words defy our proud behest,

Or useless offering prevent our guest?

Ten thousand 'No's' will pierce his dastard breast,

And treat him tenfold worse than all the rest!"

Thus spake their leader, and with angry roar

The o'er wrought friends assail the door;

Lot, backward hurled, could hardly stand,

Till snatched within by angel hand,

The maddened crowd no longer wait,

But headlong rush to meet their fate!

The ready angels rise, with godlike mind,

And strike the guilty wretches blind:

In vain they strive to reach and force the door,

Their useless orbs are blasted evermore!

"Go seek thy children, Lot, in eager haste,

And bid them not a precious moment waste.

God will destroy this sin-accursed place,

And wipe from earth its faintest trace!"

Lot, thus commanded, found each one that night,

And faithfully portrayed their awful plight;

But he, to them, seemed as a man that mocked,

And left them sorely grieved and doubly shocked.

The morn arose! The angels cautioned Lot

To wife and daughters take and tarry not;

And as they lingered took them by the hand

And led them from the endangered land.

"Flee to the mountains and no hind'rance brook,

Nor backward turn a long, admiring look.

The wretch who dares this mandate to defy

Shall, 'neath Jehovah's hand, in torture die!"

This stern command was heard by trembling Lot

With deep repugnance, for it pleased him not.

"Nay, nay, my lord; but if before thy face

Thy trembling servant dares to plead for grace,

Command me that I now may turn aside

And in your little city safe reside.

Thus may I keep my soul alive this day

Nor after fall to mountain beasts a prey."

The heavenly strangers, with an august nod,

Agree to lift from Zoar Jehovah's rod.

The rescued quartette Zoarward bend,

While hope and fear alternate tend.

With mien majestic, yes, with hasty tread,

Their trembling flight their aged father led.

Next came the virgins, able scarce to stand,

And followed by their mother, last of all the band.

She yet to Sodom and its idols clave,

And dared Jehovah's awful wrath to brave;

One look she sought, her weary journey to beguile,

And in a moment stood transfixed—a Salty Pile!

The more obedient trio onward fly,

Until the opening gates of Zoar greet the eye.

Now, with full hearts, they reach the calm retreat,

And cordial welcome from King Bela meet.

END OF FIRST CANTO.

The Fall of Sodom—Canto Second.

From Bera's palace, and from Sodom's shrine,

A thousand scintillating rays of beauty shine;

The gorgeous parapets of beaten burnished gold

Enlightened fancy can with awe behold.

Those marble walls of rainbow-tinted hue,

Please and instruct and yet astound the view.

Each curve of beauty and each line of grace

Relates some annal of the ancient place.

Upon these sculptured walls each Sodomite may trace

The birthplace and the lineage of his entire race.

He here may read, in many a flowing line,

The maiden efforts of the Tuneful Nine,

Who first appeared and strung the quivering lyre,

When new created stars their Maker's praise aspire;

Theirs is the music of the quick revolving spheres,

And theirs the power to bathe a world in tears.

They paint in colors, dipped in liquid truth,

The brow of beauty and the lip of youth.

Thought, tame in prose in their enchanting line,

Is dressed in beauty and is half divine.

They wing love's arrows with consumate art,

And make the melting music of the heart.

Youth they instruct and tottering age sustain,

Virtue exalt and hideous voice restrain.

Inside this palace life is but a dream

Of beauty, flowing in a constant stream.

Here silken curtains hang on wires of gold,

And zephyr-satin, whose capacious fold

Ten thousand giddy turns and windings take

The secret chambers of the place to make.

Each article of comfort man can know

With priceless gems and flashing colors glow;

Each drinking vessel is a solid gem;

Each odorous flower grows on a parent stem;

Birds of bright plumage raise their tuneful note

And scatter scents ambrosial as they float.

The crystal fountains generous wine dispense,

And food delicious satisfies the sense;

The air is balmy as the breath of spring,

And every atom is a beauteous thing.

One thing alone this mighty place appalls:

No woman dwells within these sculptured walls.

Here man with man in lustful caprice plays,

And Heaven's righteous mandate disobeys;

Sinks, through his lust, below the groveling beast,

Who to the female makes his amorous suit.

Within those walls are stores of untold wealth,

Secured by carnage and by midnight stealth;

Beneath each divan and each downy couch

The smouldering fires of retribution crouch.

Each glittering tankard and each costly plate

Reflects the fierceness of each pending fate.

The quenchless tortures of Jehovah's wrath

Is earthward tending in a destined path!

The brilliant sun of light, the mighty sire,

Seems bathed in blood and heaven's all afire.

From pole to pole the livid lightnings flash

Till all creation trembles 'neath the crash;

And earthward, still, the melting heavens bend,

While blinding floods of hissing flames descend,

And seas of lava, with three mighty bounds,

The now doomed city and the plain surrounds.

Now, inward flowing, rolls the mighty tide,

On whose dread billows death alone can ride;

And upward rising, with tremendous sweep,

Its molten billows awful union keep

With floods descending from the flaming sky,

And Sodom knows her hour has come to die!

Her frightened millions in a circle band,

And view approaching death on every hand.

Around them rolls a sea of fire;

Above them flames the torch of Heaven's ire;

While hissing lava, in descending rain,

Creates new horror and gives birth to pain.

Each gorgeous palace and each mart of trade

Is buried for their wickedness and in ashes laid.

In vain they call their idols, name by name.

Their garments all are wrapt in living flame,

Their quivering bodies tortured to the bone,

Their parched lips in vain assay a moan,

Their eyes still pleading with each bated breath

Not for forgiveness, but for instant death!

The circling oceans, with resounding roar,

Meet and commingle—and the scene is o'er!