Anyone got "The Ancient Track" (Lovecraft Poetry collection)? I'm eager to read the 4 part "Stanzas on Samarkand" to see if there's material there for the Dreamlands city Sarkomand - but don't want to buy the whole book for one poem.
Anyone got "The Ancient Track" (Lovecraft Poetry collection)? I'm eager to read the 4 part "Stanzas on Samarkand" to see if there's material there for the Dreamlands city Sarkomand - but don't want to buy the whole book for one poem.
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Or for that matter "The Girl from Samarkand" from the E Hoffmann Price collection "Strange Gateways" - damn city pops up everywhere...
Yeah, Timur-il-leng loved that town, too.Speaking of which, Robert E. Howard's Lord of Samarcand (the story and the Bison Books collection named for it) is great.
I suggest that you consider buying the book anyway -- true, a lot of it is not very good, but at least the weird verse and the satires are excellent.Originally Posted by Taavi
[STANZAS ON SAMARKAND]
Too long the jangling of the Muse run mad
Hath vext the air of our decaying land--
Turned to the golden past, we quit Bagdad,
And take the Golden Road to Samarkand!
Frantick with rumours of eternal night,
And bury'd lore that none may understand,
We leave behind the realms of pitch and fright,
And take the Golden Road to Samarkand!
Reality, the King of Idiot Gods,
Fumbles his puppets with a palsy'd hand:
Come leave him as he paws his wining clods,
And take the Golden Road to Samarkand!
Each distant mountain glows with faery grace,
The flame-lit lakelet laps the level strand;
Lur'd by dim vistas beck'ning out of space,
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand!
Thank you so much!
This is very clearly "inspired by" James Elroy Flecker to the point of pastiche.
extract (from a caravan scene, about to leave Baghdad for Samarkand):
We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.
Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.
We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand
Note the mysterious prophet in verse 2 who is a shoe-in for the Mad Arab himself IMHO.
The second last line must also be one of the earliest "Man was not meant to know" lines in english literature, though I suppose the theme started with Shelley's Frankenstein.
In combo with the Lovecraft stanzas, it gives me a lot to work with!
Huh. Hadn't twigged the Timur connection to Leng before.Yeah, Timur-il-leng loved that town, too.
Had read REH's yarn, thanks.
Still wondering what EH Price wrote - REH was clearly impressed by The Girl from Samarkand since he starts "the Black Colossus" with a quote from it.
You're welcome.
Yep, Joshi says so in his notes to the poem. Or poems, since the four stanzas appeared in four different letters over the course of two years.
I knew Flecker's name was ringing another "Lovecraft Circle" bell in my head.You're welcome.
Yep, Joshi says so in his notes to the poem. Or poems, since the four stanzas appeared in four different letters over the course of two years.Robert E. Howard was a big fan, too. He used a quote in The Children of the Night. Check this link:
http://www.rehupa.com/bookshelf_f.htm
and then click on "Flecker, James Elroy"
Interesting. Rather unpleasant story by modern standards, innit? But that paragraph will make a good epigraph...I knew Flecker's name was ringing another "Lovecraft Circle" bell in my head.
http://www.rehupa.com/bookshelf_f.htm
and then click on "Flecker, James Elroy"
Brainstorming DG/COC things without you would be like trying to hunt badgers with a borzoi. - Panchakahq
Was that the one with the Pictish past life and the extremely dengerate Dark People? If so then I don't think it was one of his best tales - to much of the noble savage stuff and an unfortunate paradoxle mention of The Namless Cults and the name of Lovecraft in conection to the Call of Cthulhu story.
No, it was a reincarnation tale with the proto-Celt, Aryara, as the protagonist (in the past). The Picts had preceded Aryara's ancestors into Britain, where it was they who had originally waged a war of extermination upon the "People of the Dark/Children of the Night/Worms of the Earth". Howard intimates again and again in various tales that there is some sort of "reptilian taint" about the "Worms". Serpent-folk degenerates/mongrels, perhaps, as Karl Edward Wagner surmised? REH's concept was drawn directly from Machen.
I'm not sure how "noble" Howard was attempting to portray Aryara. The denouement of the story has parallels with "Innsmouth". I assume you meant "paradoxical" in reference to the "unfortunate mention". This was simply REH giving "props/a shout-out" to HPL, as he said later in a letter to Lovecraft. Howard did that once, and one time only. If you find that disturbing, I would suggest you don't read any of Derleth's Mythos fiction. Auggie was addicted to bringing up actual Lovecraft tales, as literary support WITHIN his own tales. Of course, AD's tales needed all of the help they could get.If so then I don't think it was one of his best tales - to much of the noble savage stuff and an unfortunate paradoxle mention of The Namless Cults and the name of Lovecraft in conection to the Call of Cthulhu story.
I'm pritty sure the whole serpent thing is derived from his Serpent Men of Valusia which fought with Kull. (Though the idea of a reptilian race that predated humanity is from theosophy I belive)
Yes I am aware of Derleth's "Bring me the Necronomicon, the Vermis Mystriis and a reasonably priced copy of the Outsider and Other Tales that has been published by Arkham House"
I forgot to ask - was it ever previously published? Or did it only appear in private letters?You're welcome.
Yep, Joshi says so in his notes to the poem. Or poems, since the four stanzas appeared in four different letters over the course of two years.
Brainstorming DG/COC things without you would be like trying to hunt badgers with a borzoi. - Panchakahq
The stanzas don't seem to have been published previously. They are not mentioned in the Bibliography anyway, but that appeared in 1981 so it's very dated (an update will be appearing from U of Tampa Press later this year).I forgot to ask - was it ever previously published? Or did it only appear in private letters?You're welcome.
Yep, Joshi says so in his notes to the poem. Or poems, since the four stanzas appeared in four different letters over the course of two years.
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