As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with asphaltic slime; broad as the gate Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on Over the foaming Deep high-arched, a bridge Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless World, Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad, Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell. So, if great things to small may be compared, Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined, And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves. Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock, Over the vexed Abyss, following the track Of Satan, to the self-same place where he First lighted from his wing, and landed safe From out of Chaos, to the outside bare Of this round World. With pins of adamant And chains they made all fast, too fast they made