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BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE.
25
And we observed another Deity,Half in, half out the portal,—watch and ward,—Eyeing his fellow: formidably fixed,Yet faultering too at who affronted him.As somehow disadvantaged, should they strive.Like some dread heapy blackness, ruffled wing,Convulsed and cowering head that is all eye,Which proves a ruined eagle who, too blindSwooping in quest o' the quarry, fawn or kid,Descried deep down the chasm 'twixt rock and rock,Has wedged and mortised, into either wallO' the mountain, the pent earthquake of his power;So lies, half hurtless yet still terrible,Just when—who stalks up, who stands front to front,But the great lion-guarder of the gorge,Lord of the ground, a stationed glory there!Yet he too pauses ere he try the worstO' the frightful unfamiliar nature, new