Chapter 3

Drawn by the whispers from the wind, 'Mid glories of the hollowed night, To storm-swept vales and mounts we haste, And, in monastic halls we see, Above a greenish gyrus rind, The flick'ring flames of a light, Beneath whose subtle, shadowed waste Squat men and women that would flee The ghastly words from Vellum told, Who pluck their eyes and pull their hair,-- Beneath their feet there writhes a worm! As bludgeons smite a leering soul. And when a wench that Satan sold To some old seer, whose head is bare, And oily snakes in cauldrons squirm, All blast the sight and curse this shoal,-- Infernal land of Sin and Doom! Eternal moans and sighs we hear; A swarthy demon laughs with glee. Then, thickly from a ghastly hole The turbid dyes of blood doth bloom From minxes bold, crouched with giant fear, Provoke a sage who could not see, With feelings for her impeached soul.

Low arches of a charnel house, Above whose dome two demons sit, That guard the lamps of fateful red, Veiled whispers from a maiden's soul Cleave skyward until they arrouse A savage hound of hell with script That holds her body's deeds. A-bed, He peers thro' shades unto her shoal, Then at his tome where sins are wrote Of wifes that sold their names in lust, Or men that worshipped naught but gold. And, when stillness holds troubled sway, A baneful imp that Conscience smote, Rasps names of those bowed in the dust: And, when thus their sins are foretold, As kinsmen strike their beasts and pray, A livid gasp permeates the air, A curdling curse assails the night. And squats, whose scarlet venom crawls To lantern's-glow that tell the guilt Of battling demons as they swear, Malignly dumb below each light That scyle the bloody walls and halls, The life-ebb from a wench is spilt. The phosphorescent fungus-lights Are traitors' lamps that sorrows hide; The foam-sprayed beaches that we see, Are treasure-houses for the damn'd. From year to year infernal nights Rasp shoals a thousand furlongs wide; In ev'ry zone, each distant lee, Holds ghastly sights of burning sand. The headlands that we reach by day, About whose shore the dragons roam; And mildewed vaults of gatheréd bone, Where eyeless skulls and ape-shanks lie As moaning winds reel to and sway From gorey pools and tower'd dome, A goggling wraith and shambling gnome Doth forage for each fleeing sigh.

Now Sorrow that the Dooms crown'd King, Flees from the mouth of pools inflame, Whilst Lords in robes of scarlet hue, Add to the damn'd, malignant show; Pellicles that all eyes did sting In Vengeance's law that none could tame, Flees whence two lights of dreaming blue Cleave dome-thrown shadows dress'd in woe.

A Thaumaturgist, cursed and damn'd, Raps skulls from which a venom pours, And shakes his fists where opals burn, Whence figgum that his hands control Is charged with life; and on the sand Two witches sate their thirst in gores, Flit Fancy's wings unto a urn, (Within whose tomb there writhes a soul) And with Courage that Dawn hath bred In rivers, to whispers of the night, As wracks are dyed a crimson red, Feasts upon Doom's abhorrent shape, That fires bright, toss to each bed, And flees to realms where shadows light; Whilst Thought, in horror of the dead, Wings in mourning veils, dark as crepe, And feasts on afterglow of Trust, On cauldrons tossed to crafty Death That froths dank pomp and guidons bright, Unto a height, where falt'ring eyes, Betrayed by crystals numb in dust, Gasps at the sight with startled breath As vapours green, war with the light, Faint as the sunset's golden dyes. All mounts of bone are tombs of weal, Each scree, a temple of king Doom; And runnels that the suns do shun, Are pools where offal reeks most strong And thro' the air giant wasps do reel; On barriers bleak, reptiles soom; A Vulture that no shard can stun Gawks at the multitudes gone wrong.

Where waters with the venom crawls To oriels, where banners float Beside a dome-thrown surf of blood T'ward letters large, that Hell hath wrought, Worm-like vapours skirr thro' the halls And reach a distant, lurid moat, Where sighs and groans upon a flood Ascend to heights of a grey ghaut-- Satellites to Destiny's crypt! And Vespers that the Twilight brought-- More dooms that prayers nor sighs can break-- Leer at each thought to Fancy's flight; And to the dais whereunder sit A demon-quire that Circe taught, Songs that echo to the isles in lake And valley deep, ravage the night Until Idols pall at the scene. And stationed Mounts toward the West Whose bones portray a ghastly lust; And skulls that glare at the soulless night, Point, weeping, where the foam-waves dream: All battle-wrecks and imps haste forth Unto the phosphorescent dust And pyramidal shoals of light.

The poisons that the geysers spit To apes, where Sin in splendor reigns; And cavern'd shapes that shadows hide Behind tapers, where snarling Doom Glares at Set's tomb, where devils sit, Make vague signs to the weird flames, Flit spastic breath to regions wide And shrood each shrunken soul with gloom. Where glozing parasites hold sway, Seck rivers dry reveal the bones Of ages that the Cyclops slew: Onyx thrones that the Titans storm'd Lie in obfuscating decay; Eyeless skulls that abhorrent gnomes Wield in hands that reek with the dew That solemn Death in tombs hath worm'd, Stare at the scene as willows sigh: And tapers of the Mount's crown'd witch (Whenas each carcant fades from view) Seek shadows that the tombs have cast Upon the conjured, wind blown sky, Where Syrian altar-lamps make rich The palace-domes whereon the dew Sits like a star and beams upon the vast, Phantasmagoric glory of Death, Of godly helms housed in a crypt. And where a livid beacon flares-- (A rock that some giant storm hath split) In mourning robes and rasping breath, Before a grave where devils sit, A Queen at whom a lizard stares, Sobs her grief and woe that tears writ Deep into the phorphyry mount: This, then, is Death's home, vale and Tomb! Where Lancers, made equal with the dust When revolt storm'd each kingdom's fold, And clashing wars spun Hecate round The pungent halls of spastic Doom; When in each Nation fought king Lust As siffling vapours gleamed like gold, Ten legions whom the gods forsook Wrought havoc on this Cauldron's shore: Then Dragon-guidons led the march As battle-axes smote vile Lords; Stout hears that with king Vengeance shook, Fought with valour's shield for more gore; Assaults that rasped each Temple's arch, Spake conquest o'er shambling hordes.

This tale on ghastly Vellum's writ, More sypher'd woes the walls proclaim; Where goblins fondle crumbling bones, There lies a death-thrown monster cold. Perturbéd at writings on yon script As moaning airs gaunt Sorrows name, Each ape attests in faffling tones-- Flight to the Dragons' haunted fold. Affrighted at this fearful gaze As coals blaze like twinkling jewels, Night-hawks that croak at bat-faced owls Gledge at each gnome that digged a bone From some bleak pool, and pierce the haze Where censers blaze. Unconqueréd ghouls Who laugh and leer at demon howls, Make signs unto the hell-lashed foam-- Japes that the damn'd fear in each knell!

Where jargling javels stab a toad, And mutter swift, as vypers swear; And spectres that the cauldrons wrought, Glare at the storm-swept sins that tell Of monsters that the night-winds rode When bloody plumes stole to a lair Beyond the confines of a ghaut. And spacious halls where vagrants lie-- Vandals to the Dawn, Night and Dusk! And vulpine labyrinths of hell Where pirates of a star are thron'd As dews cloak bones that pierce the sky, Wowed witches with a gorce's lust When vales list to a clanging bell That some encharnel'd hybrid domed, Sweats cesspools with the pall of fear, Shrill sounds permeate the barren air, Each shatter'd light before a well, Ends its flame in short, spastic gasps. And stars that burn but once a year, (Veinéd Aureoles to altars where, When sins are told unto each knell As chanting runes are hushed with clasps Of winds provoked by black-set night, Peer at the caravans in prayer; A dirge is sung by magicians; Each Idol squints eyes at the show, Whilst goblins curse the eerie sight. And Betelguese, an evil lair With infernal, warring legions, Careens as stars shed tears of woe.

Arcadia, its pleasing name, An Eden where the damn'd drink wine, Where rich fêtes greet each varlet's eye, Each gyving hound whom Fates have doomed: Each scyphus veils a burning flame; A blood-stone from each dome doth shine On poisons that in goblets lie, Bred by sorcerers, cursed and tombed. Then Terrors, Horrors, reign supreme! Each vial squat before the spread, Leer at toads in goblets crossed, Froth skinks within each feaster's glass, Wine changed to blood, then acrid green. A drunken villain who was bled As drink his convulsed entrails tossed, Writhes with the cramps upon the grass And glares at the face of his god, Whose wrinkled skin, in ghastly wrath, Provoked at this son in revolt, Rants his spleen to the slabs of Doom, From whence gyte monsters with a rod, That oft gave imps a bloody bath, Hythe, and before their master halt; And, then came unhung, battling gloom! The dome cracked like a clashing star, All lights were muffled in a shroud, Wild winds that cought us in their fold, Dashed wrecks unto a reeking zone. In Thralldom's grasp we waged giant war, The storms rasped at each cursing crowd, From regions far there sprung a cold That froze each hoodlum stuck in loam. There, garbed in the wastes of a moat, Gangrel witches scan the slime to curse Beneath a dome and shatter'd light, A sign that all are lost and doomed. Toward jagged heights black oaths float, To skies of jasper light, adverse To Doom's rich fold, prayers reach thro' night That some malignant monster tombed In phantom-blankets stark and bold. All mountain-chasms growl and roar; Each ocean froths black waves of lust; King Thunder rasps the trembling night; Giant lightnings split their fevered hold; Encharneled guilt hastes to this shore As hydras squirm along the dust, Affrighted at this Cauldron's sight.

For we are unsubstantial wrecks Beyond the pale of scale and fin; Adventurers tossed by king Time In region 'neath supernal skies. To dungeoned knells where venom specks The robes of priestesses with sin, And prowling apes get drunk with wine, We turn each thought to coral eyes That seas have blurred with coffined night, And whisper deeds wrought in silence. A quiver that the tomb-sweat bore When walls were split with Typhon's ire; And monstrous shapes that carved the light As dragon-worms brought pestilence To souls who grovel on this shore, Proclaim each gyving djinnee sire. And dryades whom the mists have struck With ague--A Sceptre of Despair! (Sklayres to the night, and suns unstunned) Dank dulse, where templed vaults of man, Coarse-grained, who gambled with king Luck, 'Mid pulse of life below the air, Shake at the throb of this unsummed Sphere, where haunted thoughts and dreams scan Athward at a untower'd home, Where vitals that the glow-worm lit-- Friends to the Doom! as sorrowed soul, Repress'd with rage, knelt down and prayed, Rise from the hollowed void a moan As sins upon papyrus, writ In vyper's blood--Jems in this shoal! Confess'd by men whom friends have flayed, Teem in the wind-swept, shatter'd strands-- Blind batter'd keels that know no rest 'Mid surge of moans that tombs have spilt. Upon the air that Doom hath wrung, Beyond the fields where numberless hands Point to the headland of the West, Lights and vague shadows spell no guilt Unto the wraiths whom Torpor stung. And all night-thoughts in this strange sphere, Tred in the skirts of waters cold, Of hell-winds that the beaches swirl Dome-high within this shrunken realm; And crested billows toss giant Fear Unto each culprit's hidden fold: The studded roof where flares a pearl, The charnel vapours o'erwhelm.

In caverns where gyte jinnee lee-- Noctivagous lepers in the gloom-- Unhollowed regions wrapped in light Where groans are drowned by revels coarse, (Seen by a gump throughout the year Above the strife where horrors soom) Lurk crafty gnomes who with the night Rant oaths in voices cracked and hoarse: Blood-thirsty jinn in essling caves, Where rubic dyes tinge Torture's dome, And vypers' whispers pierce the night As ghouls--whose baneful eyes conspire With the surge of hell's roaring waves-- Rear mounts of bone--Dame Sorrow's home! As charnel scarn parades in light-- Unfathomed crafts rayed in wowed attire. And dusky mists peer at the show, Obtest the gloom to further deeds Of haste, to Horror's added might; Tho' twilight-witches spill their gloom, (Betelguese's priestesses of woe) Abhorrent gawks lure in the reeds Where shatter'd lights wing sudden flight, 'Mid spun-waves kiss'd by poppy bloom.

Dank dulse, and rushing waters cold; Eternal signs of shadowed night Beyond the zephyr-haunted space Of adequate lees 'neath the sky: Unfathomed haunts of stark souls bold That squat on waves of darkest dight, Malignly mute as foam-waves race To pyres where men in torture lie. When thrones are levelled to the dust, And glories fade in cauldrons tossed, 'Mid waters vaster than the night In scarlet tombs that rasp grim Death, Supernal selves, loosed from king Lust As Dissolution bulwarks crossed, Conviction of an undreamt might Assail each mongrel afrite's breath. Hushed gasps permeate the solemn air As coral Twilight flaunts its sheen, And vapours wreath phantastic forms Till vaulted domes glow like the noon. Vague dreams plague souls beyond repair, Phantoms, black demons call their queen, Skinks and owls whom no conscience storms Make faces at the leprous moon. And bleak dungeons dank with odours Strong, within each encrusted gyre, 'Mid treasure-vaults digged by gray Age, Affronting witches incense burn; And howling ghouls gape thro' vapours, Two siffling vampyres dance on fire, Each mottled sage a conqueréd page To him whose hate no Doom can turn, No bat-faced gnome can stem the blaze: Hence harlots, ghastly with giant sin, Chant runes to him in strobic gloom As figgum's plied before his throne. Malignly mute, he peers thro' haze; Infernal pæons shake each Inn, Blue lights 'twixt opals burn and bloom In deep-hued haunts of Typhon's home.

In vain we seek an isle of peace Beyond the pale of siffling Doom! 'Mid stillness vaster than the tomb, Made equal with the ghouls who lurk On battlements where witches ease Their minds as rubic censers fume, A Fiend bubbles in ruddy bloom As turgid dyes the night-dwales shirk. No sunsets crimson this stainéd sea, No Ev'ntides her plume unfolds; An opaque light that Silence wrought. Careens thro' space in quest of toll. Then demons storm each sea and lee, Abhorrent sights each Cauldron holds, Dim shapes flit to the distant ghaut Where Doom sits poised--Each monster's goal! Erelong the air shakes with a roar-- Forebodings of souls on Death's dome! Bright cyphers spell the new-damnéd name In letters 'gainst a leprous home: Oaths peel like the hammer of Thor-- The screaming thing is flayed to bone! Its sins--an outraged Body's shame-- Laid bare as whipcords dye the foam, Whereon nepheloid imps and night, Soom on with tidings of a moan, Of dews, and whisper'd groans and sighs. And, as vague forms writhe in despair, A native in phantastic dight Stills Torture's hold in weazened tone, Black incense lifts its wand and flies To haunts where mattoids rave and swear.

Where figent gawks sken at a gnome, Decked in byssin and beads of gold; And glozing jinn on a scree's height, That leer as geysers boil and flow, Feazing imps on serai's dome, Drink from olpes icy philters cold, Whilst scarn assails the morning light-- And gumps haste to the Dawn's first show. Then pyres don mystic sklayres agleam, A faffling fool leads gawks thro' hall Where fays, in stones of ancient art, Dance as Scorpions shake with glee: Infernal pomps spread tawny sheen, Strange figgum, amid unholy pall, Pierce Sorrows with its poisoned dart Whence horrors shake their limbs and flee. And scenes, profound in Aspect's hue, Play havoc with eyes of each soul: Crimson dales (vague tho' they be) And swards rise from the lurid moat; Knees bend in Adoration's pew, Blithe songs of cheer, far and near, roll Thro' the halls to ebony sea, Above whose breast twin whispers float-- Tremendous signs of dooms to be! And, ere falt'ring noon wings itself To shadow peaks and portals bright That scyle veiled augueries of Hell, An agate light arrays this sea, Each glabrous fay sports with an elf, A one-eyed owl blinks at the light, A green-horned toad croaks from a well. Then pageantries fade in the gloom: 'Mid Cyclopean storms unstunned Dank treasure-houses spill their quest And march with thunder from far West; Whilst lightning flashes skirr the noon, Giant moans ascend from shoals unsunned, The turf, Tartarus' coals of rest-- Helots to the haunts of Sin's crest-- Whereon jimp jinn ride to hell's mouth, The silence stir with oaths of might; Vile dragons roar at a zimb's sting; A swarthy gump leers at the damn'd: All soom to mountains of the South Where sultry winds war with the light, And zanies' voices rise to sing, Hosannah to the idol's stand, Where azure-censers' fumes enhance The pomps, adverse to Sorrow's home. Figent hydras squat on each throne, Mute souls peer at the altar's flame As phantom images do dance In honour of this Hybrid's zone, Bred in this gorce by some strange gnome, Sib to him who plays Satan's game.

A Cesspool vext with leprous stench And oils--A sign that spells a curse! Visioned with Temples' diamonds bright In domes as guide to those whose cry Of fear, sprung from a wench's bench, Lure all to this strange shore, adverse To moonlit skies. By the ghaut's light, (Ten-thousand furlongs wide and high) The gaud, spun from sorcerers' art, Reveals its part unto each soul-- Imperishable signs of groans That time nor cyclones can eschew. No lulling lanes point to a mart, No tidings good their billows roll; In fretful haunts where Sorrow moans, Swarm souls in Penance's rasping pew: Disastrous sights of Torture's dome! Red-embered coals that burn their feet! And reeking pools, vile with odours, Make monstrous this blood-crimson vale. Where demon-lovers chew a bone As men and women choak in heat, And blood-veinéd sights writhe in vapours-- Eternal shadows in each gale!

To groves where stiliness sat supreme, Flee seers in quest of lagging rest; To regions where giant echos roar, Haste begotten sons in this lair: There man-born wrecks lie down and dream Of sea-winds that foam-billows bless'd, Of auric realms where censers pour Violaceous fumes thro' the air. And in the deep-hued depths of gore, (Blind bowels in Betelguese's hold) Gyte vandals that a Dragon bore Sleep with one eye as Midnight rules These sons of Circe whom pyres adore; Their thoughts vie with the luring fold, Each sleepless orb glares like a boar-- Infernal hounds of shambling ghouls! Porphyry mounts where crystals glare-- Twin carcants strung on idols' thighs Whereon stones, blaze like fire bright, And moonstones add their silver sheen, A Circean draught, boiled in the air, Is poured on cippus where Set lies; Where vanquished Soldans sleep each night, A greenish fungus-torch doth gleam. Giant battles have been fought in hell, Principalities rot in dust, The tombs of kings speak of the past When Incubi reigned with a rod. Unnumberéd bones adorn each dell-- Where Rulers lie there stands a bust; Blood-stainéd the hands of him whose task Is blasting varlets like a god. And when some spirit stalks thro' space In quest of vaults--Temporal lees! Treads in the grandeur of dank hell, A batter'd shape that shakes its frame, Spacious regions Courage chase, Winds drive it to Misery's seas, Laughs ascend from sequesteréd well, Thro' shadows vague it hears its shame. And tomb-thrown groans and sighs we hear-- Tho' midnight's near and afrite's sleep: An Owl, perturbéd at some strange sound, Scares bats in space and wings for domes. All signs of woe hath flown with fear, No maidens heave their breasts and weep, All wrecks of Flesh lie on the ground, Removed from shoals where Terror moans. On skulls that some in Death hath left, Croak toads to lizards in a well; In cajons that the Ancient's digged, Swim snakes that hiss at burning oils: And bats and owls that offal cleft, Proclaim their burdens to a dell, Whilst crafts that some strange witch hath rigged, Bring slaves unto this Cesspool's coils.

When carcants gleam like scarlet foam, And hiss of pyres froth at each light In dongas vext as jazels flare From splinter'd tombs of Kings in dust, A straggling mist that cleft Hell's dome, Peers at the gloom and strobic sight Of charnel shard as vypers blare Wrathfully at each Monarch's bust. And doleful dirges rake the gloom, A whisper'd sin sobs at the wrecks; Graven imps clasp papyrus old And rant each Body's deeds of shame. Come from a dank and sunken womb All stranded ghouls on keels and decks Where Cyclops fought as Vellum told In cyphers bright, sprung from each flame, Make hideous eyes at the night. And terrors that Tartarus bred Assail each kingdom treblefold: A gangrel clan that someone flayed, Skirr thro' the dungeoned halls in flight And seek the caverns of the dead. Where tapers gleam like virgin gold The tombs of dead queens are arrayed: There, too, a witch unfurls her cowl And scans the shambling hordes to curse, And with the light that cyclones split, She juggles secrets of her lust, And hurls her voice at Néphele's owl, Past portals dark, where harlots nurse Their skinless limbs that Torture bit, And stamps her feet into the dust As, into olpes she pours a tear: And, musing at the clouds of gloom, She wrinkles face and lifts her hands To mutter words unto the night. Whereon a ghoul-king hath writ Fear, And changes gloom to purple bloom, The shoals to opal-sanded strands That reach, past wrecks to crystal light, Where mossy vales with poppies bloom, And hastes her flight from Terror's urn, To onyx seas where agates glow, And feats her eyes on woes of hell, Upon the foam-dreams of king Doom, Where monsters in red cauldrons burn, 'Mid shrieks that from their vitals flow With airs that rasp each bone-strewn dell. And sea-linkt skies of charnel black-- A savage dome! streaked scarlet red, Where maids for demon lovers mourn; And caskets spew a dusky foam That quench the thirst of yon lone wrack That holds the sultry, naked dead, Who caught the eyes of waves forlorn, Now bathed in blood in Hecate's home.