WF H848 .B53 1930
Black Chant Imperial
First published in Weird Tales, September 1930 (vol. 16, no. 3). Poem.
United States public domain. Held in the Reading Room of The Weird Library. Published by Weird Tales.
Trumpets triumph in red disaster.
White skulls litter the broken sod.
And we who ride for the one Black Master
Howl at the iron gates of God.
Temples rock and the singers falter.
Lights go out in the rushing gloom—
Slay the priest on his blackened altar,
Rip the babe from the woman's womb!
Black be the night that locks around them,
They who chant of the Good and Light,
Black be the pinions that shall confound them.
Breaking their brains with a deadly fright.
Praised be the Prince that reigns forever
Throned in the shadows stark and grim.
Where cypress moans by the midnight river—
Lift your goblets and drink to him!
Virgins wail and a babe is whining
Nailed like a fly on a gory lance;
White on the skulls the stars are shining.
Over them sweeps our demon's dance.
Trumpets bray and the stars are riven!
Shatter the altar, blot the light!
From the bursting hells to the falling heaven
We are kings of the world tonight!