Ii

I saw a dead corpse in a haughty car, Whom in a high tomb phantom horses bore, Aye to and fro upon the scatter'd floor; His dead eyes star'd as though they look'd afar,

His gold wheels myriad perish'd souls did mar, While through his flesh the ravenous wormlets tore; He in whose eyes the worm was conqueror, Held his high head unmoved like a star.

And as with loud sound and reverberant jar, And as with splash of crusht flesh and dull roar, The death-car thunder'd past the tomb-walls hoar,

Within those dead dominions the dead tsar Receiv'd his plaudits where dead bodies are; And in his heart the worms lie evermore.