A Word from the Outer Dark

My ruthless hands still clutch at life–

Still like a shoreless sea

My soul beats on in rage and strife.

You may not shackle me.

My leopard eyes are still untamed,

They hold a darksome light–

A fierce and brooding gleam unnamed

That pierced primeval night.

Rear mighty temples to your god–

I lurk where shadows sway,

Till, when your drowsy guards shall nod

To leap and rend and slay.

For I would hurl your cities down

And I would break your shrines

And give the site of every town

To thistles and to vines.

Higher the walls of Nineveh

And prouder Babel’s spires–

I bellowed from the desert way–

They crumbled in my fires.

For all the works of cultured man

Must fare and fade and fall.

I am the Dark Barbarian

That towers over all.