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Ebony and Crystal/Inferno

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For works with similar titles, see Inferno.
19004Ebony and Crystal — InfernoClark Ashton Smith

INFERNO

Grey hells, or hells aglow with hot and scarlet flow'rs;
White hells of light and clamour; hells the abomination
Of breathless, deep sepulchral desolation
Oppresses ever—I have known them all, through hours
Tedious as dead eternity; where timeless pow'rs,
Leagued in malign, omnipotent persuasion—
Wearing the guise of love, despair and aspiration,
Forever drove, through ashen fields and burning bow'rs,

My soul that found no sanctuary.****For Lucifer,
And all the weary, proud, imperious, baffled ones
Made in his image, hell is anywhere: The ice
Of hyperboreal deserts, or the blowing spice
In winds from off Sumatra, for each wanderer
Preserves the jealous flame of sad, infernal suns.