... -meal was brought with blood , and each sate sullenly apart gorging himself in gloom ; no love was left ; all earth was but one thought-and that was death immediate and inglorious ; and the pang of famine fed upon all entrails-men died and their bones were tombless as their flesh ; the meagre by the meagre were devour 'd , ... and jeffers read on , evil dancing after evil , until at last he concluded : they slept on the abyss without a surge- the waves were dead ; the tides were in their grave , the moon , their mistress , had expired before ; the winds were wither 'd in the stagnant air , and the clouds perish 'd ; darkness had no need of aid from them-she was the universe .