What is the sorriest thing that enters Hell? br None of the sins,—but this and that fair deed br Which a soul's sin at length could supersede. br These yet are virgins, whom death's timely knell br Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel br Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves br Of anguish, while the pit's pollution leaves br Their refuse maidenhood abominable. br Night sucks them down, the tribute of the pit, br Whose names, half entered in the book of Life, br Were God's desire at noon. And as their hair br And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit br To gaze, but, yearning, waits his destined wife, br The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.