RONDELS (AT MONTE CARLO) 
 
Written in the Casino, Monte Carlo. 
 
I 
 
THERE is no hell but earth :  O coil of fate 
Binding us surely in the Halls of Birth, 
The unsubstantial, the dissolving state ! 
There is no hell but earth. 
 
Vain are the falsehoods that subserve to mirth. 
Dust is to dust, create or uncreate. 
The wheel is bounded by the world’s great girth. 
 
By prayer and penance unregenerate, 
Redeemed by no man’s sacrifice or worth, 
We swing :  no mortal knows his ultimate. 
There is no hell but earth. 
 
 
II 
 
In all the skies the planets and the stars 
Receive us, where our fate in order plies. 
Somewhere we live between the savage bars 
In all the skies. 
 
 
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