NE PLUS ULTRA

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Sole Positive of Night!

Antipathist of Light!

Fate's only essence! primal scorpion rod —

The one permitted opposite of God!—

Condenséd blackness and abysmal storm

Compacted to one sceptre

Arms the Grasp enorm —

The Intercepter —

The Substance that still casts the shadow Death!—

The Dragon foul and fell —

The unrevealable,

And hidden one, whose breath

Gives wind and fuel to the fires of Hell!

Ah! sole despair

Of both th’ eternities in Heaven!

Sole interdict of all-bedewing prayer,

The all-compassionate!

Save to the Lampads Seven

Reveal'd to none of all th’ Angelic State,

Save to the Lampads Seven,

That watch the throne of Heaven!