24.06.2007, 10:58
A great black cloud from heaven's midmost height
Hangs all to eastward roofing half the world,
Whereunder in vast shadow stretches furled
A waste, meseems, where never leaf nor light
Might be, but only darkness infinite,
Where the lost heroes of old dreams oppressed
Might still be wandering on some dolorous quest,
A land of witchcraft and accursed blight.
Lapping the border of that huge distress,
A pallid stream from valleys gnarled and dim
Comes creeping with a Stygian silentness;
While yonder southward at the cloud's last rim
Antares from the Scorpion burns afar,
With surge and baleful gleam, the fierce red star!
Hangs all to eastward roofing half the world,
Whereunder in vast shadow stretches furled
A waste, meseems, where never leaf nor light
Might be, but only darkness infinite,
Where the lost heroes of old dreams oppressed
Might still be wandering on some dolorous quest,
A land of witchcraft and accursed blight.
Lapping the border of that huge distress,
A pallid stream from valleys gnarled and dim
Comes creeping with a Stygian silentness;
While yonder southward at the cloud's last rim
Antares from the Scorpion burns afar,
With surge and baleful gleam, the fierce red star!