Ten million years beyond the sweep of Time,
   Ten million leagues from bound and measured Place
I hear vast monsters in the cosmic slime
   That mock the pallid glow of my dim face.
Here scum is quick and crawling filth alive
   And nameless, shapeless horrors breed and crawl,
And serpent-things horrific writhe and thrive―
   But through the nauseous muck I hear the Call―
There still are deeper Hells of Time to plumb,
   Dark demon shapes more terrible and vast―
Unheard, unguessed, un-dreamed of, broods the drum,
   That crouch along the sky-line of the Past.
Great taloned fingers grope from out the Deeps
   And fearful eyes are gleaming in the gloom,
Dismembered limbs that lie in moldering heaps
   Start up and strive to drag me to my doom,
      And I with laughter of a man insane
      Am wading through a cloud that is a Brain.