Explore "The Troglodyte" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ In ages dead, a troglodyte, / At the hollow roots of a monster height, -- / That grew from the heart of the world to light, -- / I dwelt in caverns: over me / Were mountains older than the moon; / And forests vaster than the sea, / And gulfs, that the earthquake's hand had hewn, / Hung under me. And late and soon / I heard the daemon of change that sighed / A cosmic language of mystery; / While life sat silent, primeval-eyed, / With the infant spirit of prophecy.
/ Gaunt stars glared down on the Titan peaks; / And the gaunter glare of the cratered streaks / Of the sunset's ruin heard condor shrieks. / The roar of cataracts hurled in air, / And the hurricane laying his thunders bare, / And rush of battling beasts, -- whose lair / Was the antechamber of nadir-gloom, -- / Were my outworld joys. But who shall tell / The awe of the depths that heard the boom / Of the iron rivers that fashioned Hell!