(no subject)

[lehah]

To a Nameless Woman
by Robert E Howard

Hard shadows break along the smoky hills,
Clear etched against a cold blue marble sky.
Along the north the purple lances lie,
To hint the gems that hoard of winters spills,
Glimmering treasures from some earth-troll’s tills.
A thin and bitter wind is whispering by;
And in my heart a dream that will not die,
Shatters my crystal soul with tremored thrills.

Scarcely a breath divides us, yet apart
We stand as though an ocean lay between.
A silence falls - and you seem strange and cold.
Perish, my dream, and die, my empty heart.
For in your eyes I see a mystic sheen
Inhuman wondrous and inhuman old.

I am a breath on the summer sea,
My feet have never trod these ways before,
Forgotten, I shall tread these roads no more.
But in your heart pulse throbs Eternity.
You were, you are, and evermore shall be;
And you have heard the emerald oceans roar
On many a dim and naiad haunted shore,
And ghostly kings have worshiped at your knee.

I am an infant wailing in the night,
Trembling before the knowledge that is yours.
Under your heart unborn Tomorrow sings.
And not for me your eon lent allures,
Since I have seen your dusky eyes alight
With sudden memory of forgotten things.