"Amithaine" by Clark Ashton Smith

Who has seen the towers of Amithaine
Swan-throated rising from the main
Whose tides to some remoter moon
Flow in a fadeless afternoon?...
Who has seen the towers of Amithaine
Shall sleep, and dream of them again.

On falcon banners never furled,
Beyond the marches of the world,
They blazon forth the heraldries
Of dream-established sovereignties
Whose princes wage immortal wars
For beauty with the bale-red stars.

Amid the courts of Amithaine
The broken iris rears again
Restored from gardens youth has known;
And strains from ruinous viols flown
The legends tell in Amithaine
Of her that is its chatelaine.

Dreamer, beware! in her wild eyes
Full many a sunken sunset lies,
And gazing, you shall find perchance
The fallen kingdoms of romance,
And past the bourns of north and south
Follow the roses of her mouth.

For trumpets blare in Amithaine
For paladins that once again
Ride forth to ghostly, glamorous wars
Against the doom-preparing stars.
Dreamer, awake!... but I remain
To ride with them in Amithaine.

----

Stars and wars? Seriously, Mr. Smith? I can make 'again' rhyme with 'Amithaine' (using Shakespearean pronunciation for 'again'), but I have no idea what inspired the 'stars' and 'wars' pairing. *boggle* Indeed, it is because of the strange (to modern ears) pronunciation of 'again' (but normal to Shakespearen ears!) that I settled on what should be the pronunciation of 'Amithaine'. The -thaine part I have high confidence I went with the correct pronunciation, although the Ami- part is only maybe 50%.

chatelaine: I'm going to go with the definition of 'a woman in charge of a large house'

The picture used is "Husaria's attack" by Aleksander Orłowski. I had been hoping to find a picture of armored knights marching forth from a medieval castle, but no such luck. But hey, Polish hussars!! If you have never heard the song "Winged Hussars" by Sabaton, go look it up immediately! If Hollywood could ever make a completely historically accurate movie of the 1683 Siege of Vienna without adding any random nonsense, it would easily be one of the most intense and exciting movies ever made. And the costumes and weapons and the castle and landscape, the opportunities for cinematography and choreography, it could be so mind-blowingly amazing. Hollywood today won't do it, of course, because Muslims are the aggressors in this story, and Hollywood can't bring themselves to have such a plot element in current year. There would be no need to turn the Ottoman's into cartoon villains, they can be presented fairly and respectfully, but Hollywood just won't allow Muslims to ever be a bad guy at this point in time. And yes, I am aware Renzo Martinelli made a movie about the siege, and it does some things very well, but does other things rather poorly. It's quite the mixed bag.

To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/19/amithaine