"O Golden-Tongued Romance" by Clark Ashton Smith
We found, we knew it dimly
Within a dead life grimly
By guarding time inurned—
A glamour far and olden,
A fulgor night-enfolden,
A flame that in long-darkling Eden burned.
Though hardly then we claimed it,
We yet adored and named it
With a name forgotten now-
A faery word and dawn-like,
A word of gramarie, gone like
An opal bird from off a purple bough. . . .
Ah! vain the lamp reluming
The unhaunted vault inhuming
The cold Canopic jar,
And vain the charm recovered
From out the daemon-hovered,
Worm-travelled page of pentacled grimoire.
And yet the thing we yearned for,
The thing that we returned for
From tomb and catacomb,
It may not wholly dwindle
While moon or meteor kindle
A phantom beacon on the ebon foam.
Through ghoul-watched wood unthridden,
By goblin mere and midden,
No ivory horn will blow,
No gold lamp lighten gloom-ward,
But we will carry doom-ward
The broken beauty caught from long ago:
An echo half evading
The ear, remotely fading
From a far-vibrant lyre.
A long-plucked flower blooming
In the dry urn, a fuming
Myrrh-fragrant ember in a darkened pyre.
----
fulgor - dazzling brightness; splendor
gramarie - magic, necromancy
Canopic jar - containers that were used by the ancient Egyptians during the mummification process, to store and preserve the viscera of their owner for the afterlife
grimoire - book of black magic, especially one dealing with demons
unthridden - I can't find a definition for this, although I can find one other use of this word by Richard F. Burton in his translation of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night". That said, all hints I can find suggest it is an alternate for "untrodden".
mere - in this context, pond or lake
midden - a dunghill or refuse heap
To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/389/o-golden-tongued-romance
-
1:13
sststr
10 months ago"Canticle" by Clark Ashton Smith
8 -
1:24
sststr
9 months ago"Zothique" by Clark Ashton Smith
9 -
56:09
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago"The Death of Halpin Frayser" By Ambrose Bierce (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc)
22 -
22:14
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago $0.01 earned"The Tell-Tale Heart" By Edgar Allan Poe (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc)
86 -
29:44
Going Full Retard
2 months agoFirst Book, Part 2-17 "COM263 - Intimacy and Love"
13 -
13:02
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago $0.01 earned"The Little Match Girl" (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc
175 -
1:08:39
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago"The Black Kiss" By Henry Kuttner and Robert Bloch (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc)
1171 -
37:31
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago $0.03 earned"The Hound" By H. P. Lovecraft (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc)
7.5K -
28:07
DwelleroftheDark
3 years ago"The Statement of Randolph Carter" By H. P. Lovecraft (Narrated By Jeffrey LeBlanc)
1513 -
53:21
Sailing High Seas
9 months agoThe Norfolk Broads Phenomenon Audiobook - "Legends From The Norfolk Broads"
195