Figure E6 SUPERMASSIVE

The second form of light that ever shone,

After a million years of neutral dark,

As matter screamed to show where it had gone—

Electron stripped from atom, quark from quark—

Still visible, red-shifted, clear and stark,

The mighty cauldron of the QUASI-STAR

Yet leaves upon the sky its blazing mark.

Stately elliptical, spiral or bar,

Each galaxy was once a door of Hell ajar.