Explore "Caverns" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
_Written of Colossal Cave, Kentucky._
Aisles and abysses; leagues no man explores, / Of rock that labyrinths and night that drips; / Where everlasting silence broods, with lips / Of adamant, o'er earthquake-builded floors. / Where forms, such as the Demon-World adores, / Laborious water carves; whence echo ships / Wild-tongued o'er pools where petrifaction strips / Her breasts of crystal from which crystal pours. -- / Here where primordial fear, the Gorgon, sits / Staring all life to stone in ghastly mirth, / I seem to tread, with awe no tongue can tell, -- / Beneath vast domes, by torrent-tortured pits, / 'Mid wrecks terrific of the ruined Earth, -- / An ancient causeway of forgotten Hell.