PS 3515 
 .P268 
 N5 
 1922 
 Copy 1 
 
NIGHT 
 
 A FANTASY 
 
 by 
 
 LOWELL S. HALE 
 
 rt+ 
 
 
 PETER G. BOYLE 
 267-275 West 17th Street 
 
 Fuhlisher 
 New York City 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY PETER G. BOYLE 
 
 C1A684003 
 
 mi^, .•..v.::l 
 
 AUG 28 1922 
 
NIGHT 
 
 A FANTASY 
 
 I KNEW not why I sought the wood 
 Or lingered in the lonely wood; 
 I knew not why I came and stood 
 By the cold and heartless stone, 
 Nor did I know why I came alone. 
 
 II 
 
 The air was thick, and the darksome gloom 
 Hung like the pall of an ancient tomb ; 
 'Twas the oppressive sort that hovers o'er 
 The dismal stones of a dungeon floor. 
 God! what a stillness spread around, 
 So still that even half a sound 
 Seemed to shake the slumbering ground. 
 
6 NIGHT 
 
 III 
 
 A VAPOB rose like spirits of dead 
 
 Over the darnels' and mandrakes' bed, 
 
 The poison ivy, the foul henbane, 
 
 And toadstools rank that breed in the rain, 
 
 Forming a woof no star could melt 
 
 Yet one less seen than one that's felt. 
 
 And the odor that came so dank and cold 
 
 Smelt like^ that from a corse grown old. 
 
 IV 
 
 Of a sudden, loud as a trumpet's blare, 
 A screaming sound rent the startled air, 
 A fearful shriek on the wings of night 
 That made the ground tremble in fright. 
 And ere the last of its tones grew still 
 A mighty wind swept down from the hill 
 Bending the trees, while down beneath 
 Leaves blew like snow in the northwind's teeth. 
 And a bedlam of sound in wild uproar 
 Reeked the night with tumult o'er. 
 
NIGHT 
 
 V 
 
 Then in the sky like an awful doom 
 
 An old witch flew on a crescent broom; 
 
 Thrice she circled over the trees, 
 
 A black cat perched on each of her knees; 
 
 Thrice she laughed, then flying higher 
 
 Each cat spat forth a ball of fire 
 
 That embered long ere it reached the ground 
 
 And fell with a hissing, cracking sound. 
 
 VI 
 
 Horrors ! an opening formed in the sky 
 
 Thru which there shone a monstrous eye ; 
 
 'Twas larger than a copper moon 
 
 And brighter far than sun at noon : 
 
 Its light fell in a hawthorn glade. 
 
 And in that place it only stayed 
 
 Gleaming, the ground so very bright 
 
 That e^en the brown leaves there seemed white. 
 
 VII 
 
 'TwAs awful ! my flesh grew taut, then creeped ; 
 
8 NIGHT 
 
 What was this place in terror steeped? 
 A something moved to that spectre place 
 Where the light revealed its hairless face: 
 Half it a snake's, and half a man's; 
 It had no feet, legs, arms, nor hands, 
 And from its back so thick and round 
 A knot of snakes squirmed to the ground. 
 
 vni 
 
 With hollow sound, like voice from the dead, 
 Christ! a skull, a grimacing head 
 Eolled to the midst of the hawthorn glade 
 Where there it stopped, and then was laid 
 On a toadstool huge with grim intent 
 As tho by the evil spirit sent. 
 It seemed to try some speech to cause 
 From the tongueless cavern in its jaws. 
 And the breathless air came thru its teeth 
 Shaking the leaves on the ground beneath. 
 And its orbless eyes without a gleam 
 Looked twice as deep in the whitish beam. 
 'Twas some foreboding of an awful deed 
 That held that head to the loathsome weed. 
 
NIGHT 9 
 
 IX 
 
 Then into the light the wicked eye made 
 Hideous shapes, disorderly 'rayed, 
 Stealthily crept to the midst of the glade, 
 Forming a ring round the grinning skull 
 Till it seemed at last the place was full. 
 There sat great toads and horned snails, 
 And scaly things with twitching tails. 
 And shapes deformed to strangest size 
 With flaming breath and beady eyes. 
 
 AxD next there came thru routes of the air 
 
 Shapes that one might well declare 
 
 The visions queer in a madman's dream, 
 
 So queer and awful did they seem. 
 
 There were bluish owls and vampires gray 
 
 That never once saw light of day ; 
 
 Enormous bats, and carrion crows. 
 
 And vultures huge with talons closed 
 
 Over portions of the day's repast. 
 
 Down flew harpies in flight so fast 
 
10 NIGHT 
 
 That in their course they soon had passed 
 The small and slower birds of prey — 
 Nighthawks and orfreys by the way. 
 There came wan ghouls and filmy ghosts, 
 And demons red, innumerable hosts 
 Of greenish imps and sneering fiends 
 With Satanic looks and impious miens, 
 Chattering, swarming, hissing, gleaming. 
 Flipping, flapping, crying, screaming. 
 Snarling, laughing, yelling, growling. 
 Falling, screeching, flaring, howling. 
 Flopping, beating, kicking, tearing, 
 Down thru the air with wild eyes glaring. 
 As round the skull the hosts descended 
 When their maddening flight had ended. 
 
 XI 
 
 The wild wind now swept back to its lair 
 Swishing the trees with their branches bare. 
 Then the noises stopped with such a pall 
 I could almost hear a dewdrop fall. 
 
NIGHT 11 
 
 xn 
 
 THAT to me should fall this sight, 
 With Horror glued and stiff with fright; 
 Such had not been man's lot before, 
 
 At least by man by life's closed door. 
 My hair, which earlier in the night 
 Was black, now fast was turning white. 
 
 1 doubted not, ere the night should go. 
 That I'd find my locks grown white as snow. 
 
 XIII 
 
 Niow again I heard that old witch laugh 
 As though her voice were cracked in half. 
 And its dismal snores and creaking tones 
 Were like a demon's breaking bones. 
 It ended in a grating sound 
 Like a millstone makes in turning 'round. 
 
 XIV 
 
 The skull did shake, and its visage bare 
 Turned to the sky with its vacant stare, 
 
12 NIGHT 
 
 WTien witli hardly a swish or stir 
 The old witch lit where formed for her 
 Was a round spot, a vacant space 
 Beside the skulPs upturned face, 
 Then with a gaunt and bony hand 
 Waved a greeting to the gruesome band. 
 While a brown toad with ominous eye 
 Tethered her broom to a tree nearby. 
 And her cats with feline instinct bred 
 Curled by the side of the bony head. 
 
 XV 
 
 Ugliness, ah! if thou wert to brag, 
 
 Then in truth this fearful hag 
 
 Was more than queen, the highest peer 
 
 Of ugly wenches everywhere. 
 
 She wore a hat with peaked crown 
 
 'Neath which some stiff, coarse hair hung down 
 
 In many strands of loosened tiers 
 
 That half concealed her tufted ears. 
 
 'Neath shaggy brows of reddish hair 
 
 Green eyes peered out with a burning stare 
 
 Sending along their nicotant sight 
 
NIGHT 13 
 
 Slanting streaks of greenish light 
 
 That seared their way thru flesh and bone 
 
 And cracked atwain the hardest stone. 
 
 In contrast to her hollow cheek 
 
 Her nose stuck out like vulture's beak; 
 
 Thin, bloodless lips, of ashen hue, 
 
 Cracked and parched, disclosed to view 
 
 A few remaining hollow teeth. 
 
 Her sharp and withered chin beneath 
 
 Was covered o'er with slime and scum 
 
 That from her mouth, half closed, had come. 
 
 Her back was bent, her body thin. 
 
 And every bone showed 'neath her skin ; 
 
 'Tween folds of a robe she wore about. 
 
 Her long, lean ribs were sticking out, 
 
 Pushing it seemed as if to tear 
 
 The bonds that held them captive there. 
 
 XVI 
 
 The witch now rolled those gleaming eyes, 
 Then, looking 'round, spake in this wise: 
 **My friends, yet vassals one and all, 
 
14 NIGHT 
 
 How well ye hearken to my call; 
 
 Thy just reward, noble crew, 
 
 In joy shall be, a swill of brew. 
 
 And eye feast for thine eyes so bright 
 
 On thy Lord who soon will grace thy sight. 
 
 Thou shalt Satan see, his lovely features, 
 
 And revel with him fairest creatures; 
 
 subjects his! vassals mine! 
 
 Enemies all to the mortal swine, 
 
 Let thy loving hearts entwine 
 
 With Pluto's, and let gladness shine 
 
 When thou hast drunk the witches ' wine. 
 
 XVII 
 
 And as she ended then this speech 
 With its shrill tone and grating screech, 
 She, in her flowing robe did reach 
 And snatch some shining silver vials 
 Some of which she flung in piles 
 And others set down in a row. y- 
 
 The first I saw was labeled *'Woe,'' 
 
NIGHT 15 
 
 The second one this figure bore 
 
 Engraved in gold, the number ^'4/' 
 
 With underneath these words, less plain, 
 
 ''Envy, Heartache, Jealousy, Pain." 
 
 The third, its words were very dim. 
 
 And the vial slantwise turned its rim. 
 
 But methought I read ''Horror'* grim. 
 
 The fourth did stand in bold relief 
 
 With letters tall, the one word "Grief;'* 
 
 And the fifth, its legend bright and clear. 
 
 Held these two words, "Sorrow" and "Fear"; 
 
 And one I saw was labeled "Lies," 
 
 And one "Bats' Blood" and one "Toads' Eyes." 
 
 There were lizard lymph, skunk bladders. 
 
 And venom thick from poison adders, 
 
 And dragon scales, weasel livers, 
 
 And tadpoles slick from muddy rivers; 
 
 Foam from the mouth of a frenzied fool. 
 
 Filthy scum from a sluggish pool. 
 
 Vulture's slime from a disgorged meal. 
 
 And tendons picked from a devil's heel. 
 
 Ah! these are not half the vials that stood 
 
 There in the midst of the haunted wood, 
 
 But enough to poison a sea of blood. 
 
16 NIGHT 
 
 xvm 
 
 Deep fascinated by such display 
 
 Of silver vials in bright array, 
 
 I scarce did see the hag had begun 
 
 To empty the vials one by one 
 
 Into the skull where now it stood 
 
 Balanced on a ghost's peaked hood, 
 
 A trembling ghost whose form did shake 
 
 Like a swaying tree in an aspen brake ; 
 
 But now I saw the skull had been 
 
 Placed there to pour the foul stuff in, 
 
 And vial by vial, and size by size, 
 
 Poured by the witch made the contents rise 
 
 Till foam oozed out from its orbless eyes 
 
 In frothy drops of poison slime 
 
 That dripped with a sort of rhythmic time 
 
 Onto the pale and pallid face 
 
 Of the bloodless thing that held in place 
 
 That bony urn, that upturned head. 
 
 That cauldron grim left from the dead. 
 
 XIX ^^ 
 
 The witch did seem to make her brew 
 
NIGHT 17 
 
 For a larger band than her usual crew, 
 For in quandary she a moment thought, 
 Then, like a woman much distraught. 
 She in her robe frantically sought 
 Till at last two spiders deftly caught; 
 She placed each one in an eyeless socket 
 Of the whitish bone, where like a pocket 
 Of deep gloom grim shadows played. 
 Then wondrous sight! each spider made 
 A silken web, rare woven woof 
 Over each eye so close leak-proof 
 That well it held the seething tide 
 Of frothy foam to the far inside. 
 
 My eyes now set with rigid stare 
 That with it one might well compare 
 Magnetic glance which would compel 
 Fascination like in a spell. 
 My sight ne'er wavered from that skull 
 But had yet withal a vision full 
 Of everything in the circle's light 
 From its border dim to center bright. 
 
18 NIGHT 
 
 XXI 
 
 The witch next sent her burning stare 
 Into the skull with steady glare 
 Until the brew 'neath such a gleam 
 Began to hiss, and boil, and steam, 
 And misty curls rose up to the sky 
 Till lost in the light of the wicked eye. 
 
 XXII 
 
 At last the Avitch seemed satisfied. 
 Then her thin lips grinned long and wide. 
 And turning her gaze from the skull 's inside, 
 '*'Tis done! 'Tis done!" she cackled and cried. 
 The pallid ghost passed the skull around 
 Where crouching low upon the ground 
 Each member of this gruesome crew 
 Drank, sipped, or lapped its share of brew: 
 Some were snarling, some were growling, 
 Some were hissing, some were howling. 
 While each of them fought to be next in line 
 And the last to drink moved 'way with whine. 
 This clamor loud and noisy din 
 
NIGHT 19 
 
 Lasted, as long as the sknll held in 
 A drop of brew, one single drop; 
 When that was gone they all did stop. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Oh, God ! it came so suddenly 
 
 That how it came I could not see, 
 
 An awful thing, — delusion's snare — 
 
 Half which seemed it and half seemed air. 
 
 No definite shape, no outline made 
 
 The place it started, it stopped or stayed, 
 
 But gradually by slow degree 
 
 Assumed a shape I well could see 
 
 Was solid mass, contorted hulk 
 
 Of hideousness and monstrous bulk. 
 
 Ah, well I knew — and so would you — 
 
 'Twas Satan there within my view! 
 
 XXIV 
 
 I TEiED to shout, I tried to scream; 
 My tongue was stiff like a solid beam. 
 And thru my lips so parched and dry 
 
20 NIGHT 
 
 No sound escaped, not even a sigh. 
 My hair, uprooted, every strand 
 Frozen straight, so stiff did stand 
 That a falling twig touched a lock 
 Which crumhled like a frozen rock. 
 Still as a statue, no more nor less, 
 I speechless stood, and motionless. 
 My frozen blood stopped every vein 
 And I was dead all 'cept my brain 
 Which now with horror occupied 
 My numbed skull side by side. 
 
 XXV 
 
 As Satan's shape grew close and clear 
 I saw his face drawn in a sneer, 
 With brutal jaw and long slit mouth 
 And apish lips, and nose uncouth. 
 His head was bald yet its rim did bear 
 A few sparse tufts of steel-spun hair. 
 His doggish ears hung flapping down 
 Like the long ears of a hunting hound; 
 His hands did end in metal claws 
 
NIGHT 21 
 
 Long and curved with teeth like saws, 
 
 And his metal feet were cleft atwain, 
 
 Round each of which there hung a chain; 
 
 His ankles bore many a scale, 
 
 And round one of them was wrapped his tail, 
 
 A harpoon tail whose point was round. 
 
 Worn keen and sharp from dragging the ground ; 
 
 His leathery skin was covered o 'er 
 
 With many a blotch, and blur, and sore. 
 
 And blemish dull, and carbon spot, 
 
 And streaks of black, and grime, and soot. 
 
 One time that skin had been a grey, 
 
 But heat perhaps had borne away 
 
 All semblance to a color true. 
 
 And only shades remained to view. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 His terrible eyes ! even now 
 I shudder when I think of how 
 Their bitter glance, their acid stare 
 Left etchings in the fuming air. 
 
22 NIGHT 
 
 They were soulless eyes, soulless as a grave, 
 Of spirit devoid, but somehow gave 
 Expression from a master mind 
 Which their depths did seem to find 
 In tiendish glance and glitt'ring light 
 That darted from their pupils bright. 
 They were flinty hard and did contain 
 Sinful looks from a Hellish brain, — 
 A reptilian glance of deep design. 
 Soulless indeed, but knowledge behind 
 Like soulless eyes of the knowing asp 
 That charm the bird within its grasp — 
 And the shape of those awful eyes! 
 They were cut like gems facetwise. 
 And like gems shone glittering bright 
 In scintillating spots of light. 
 Yellow they were, of clearest hue. 
 Except the centers where spots of blue 
 Were circled round with rings of black 
 That reached to yellow's edge and back. 
 No common cord their sight did train. 
 But each eye separate from its twain 
 To right or left could gaze at will "^^^ 
 
 While the other moved or remained still. 
 
NIGHT 23 
 
 XXVII 
 
 Theee Satan sat upon the ground, 
 
 One of his eyes moving around 
 
 To survey all the creatures hy, 
 
 While the other turned up to the sky 
 
 With gaze intent at the wicked eye. 
 
 'Twas hideous shape from monster's womb, 
 
 Father of Sin, Brother of Grloom, 
 
 Wedded to Hell whose siren call 
 
 Made him her Lord there over all 
 
 That Hateful Hive where now he raves 
 
 Over tortured souls in Stygian caves. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 By Satan's feet, scarce a rod away, 
 
 The garish skull now glistening lay 
 
 Where carelessly it had been cast 
 
 When usefulness and service passed. 
 
 He turned to it with insolent stare: 
 
 ** Begone!" he said. *^Get hence from there." 
 
 Then with a kick of his metal foot, 
 
 That made great clouds of flying soot. 
 
24 NIGHT 
 
 He sent the head over the ground 
 
 Where with every leap and bound 
 
 It made a hollow, rattling sound. 
 
 **Alas!*^ thought I, '4s this the end 
 
 Of that poor bone that once had been 
 
 A part of man 'neath this same sky 
 
 Who lived and loved, and thought like I? 
 
 That parched hone, that sterile dome 
 
 In the misty past was once the home 
 
 Of some fond soul who never chose 
 
 To sever bonds of earth so close. 
 
 What misery ! what anguish deep ! 
 
 If that poor soul could only peep 
 
 Back here into this earthly plane 
 
 Where earth's last ties were so profaned, 
 
 Where only now there did remain 
 
 A fleshless mask, a pound of lime. 
 
 Mute mockery of man blasphemed by time. * 
 
 XXIX 
 
 By now those fiends all had grown ^_/ 
 So drunken that their eyes all shone 
 With phosphorescent sort of glaze 
 
NIGHT 25 
 
 And madness rank within their gaze. 
 
 Like dogs they were that tug and strain 
 
 In restless leash with hunter ^s chain, 
 
 Maddened by sight or smell of prey 
 
 Ere master's command sends them away. — 
 
 Ah, then at last these words, they came 
 
 Prom Satan's throat in a burst of flame: 
 
 **Ye chosen few, my subjects all. 
 
 Set thee at once, ere the dawn does fall. 
 
 To make merry; now do begin 
 
 Your shameful step, your dance of sin.*' 
 
 Then o 'er the glade a strange sound stirred — 
 
 The weirdest sound I ever heard: 
 
 'Twas a sort of music, low at first, 
 
 But opened up with sudden burst 
 
 Of creepy strains and wailing tones 
 
 That seemed to penetrate my bones. 
 
 Somehow I thought 'twas a lost soul 
 
 Crying to God from its hellish hole, 
 
 For oft it seemed to strike the air 
 
 With a long wail of deep despair. 
 
 XXX 
 
 Then the dance was on, but that dance 
 
26 NIGHT 
 
 Was more a maelstrom than a dance ; 
 
 'Twas seething mass that spun and whirled, 
 
 And swayed and rocked, and turned and curled, 
 
 While held in lewd, immodest places 
 
 The fiends hung close in tight embraces. 
 
 Two great toads of 'color brown 
 
 In wicked posture danced around ; 
 
 One's mouth was glued to the other's chin 
 
 From whence green blood dripped o'er their skin. 
 
 Two vultures black were madly tripping 
 
 With frothy mouths half -closed and dripping. 
 
 grotesque sight, the old witch clung 
 
 Onto the devil with hanging tongue; 
 
 Her skinny legs did creak and grate 
 
 Like hinges old on a rusty gate : 
 
 Around her hips so thin and frail 
 
 S'atan had wrapped his harpoon tail 
 
 Whose sharpened end did swish and pound 
 
 Against her bones with a cracking sound. 
 
 'Twas pandemonium there bestrown 
 
 With maddened fiends deep drunken grown. 
 
 Passion unleased, and Hell unclosed 
 
 A swaying mass in a fury's throes. ^ ^ 
 
 It seemed they danced an eternity. 
 
NIGHT 27 
 
 But a minute seemed an age to me 
 
 As it always does under strain or stress 
 
 And we're unwilling witnesses. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Then all at once above this din 
 
 Loud and clear o'er the distant fen 
 
 There came a call like a clarion clear 
 
 From the lusty throat of Chanticleer. 
 
 The dance did stop and a silent stress 
 
 Seemed to jar with its suddenness. 
 
 The old witch shrieked and with a leap 
 
 She fell inert in a flaming heap ; 
 
 The two black cats burst forth in flame, 
 
 And the broom flew back from whence it came. 
 
 The devil hissed with an awful sound 
 
 Then faded away into the ground; 
 
 The fiends and ghosts, and things that fly 
 
 Upward flew to the wicked eye; 
 
 The animals all with stealthy step 
 
 Into the bushes slunk or crept; 
 
 The wicked eye that shone so bright 
 
28 NIGHT 
 
 Lost all its gleam of brilliant light; 
 The garish skull that glistening lay 
 Crumbled to dust and blew away; 
 And soon that haunted hawthorn glade 
 Showed not a sign of the scene it made. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 Ah ! it dawned on me that in that guise 
 
 Of fiends that left I recognized 
 
 Many a man I knew full well 
 
 That in my town did live and dwell. 
 
 Wasn't one of them the undertaker, 
 
 One the butcher, one the baker? 
 
 And I'd swear by Grod or my soul of life! 
 
 One was Grimes who beats his wife. 
 
 Indeed I'm sure, on a snake I saw 
 
 The sneering face of my son-in-law. 
 
 One I thought was Doctor Gay 
 
 Who long since had passed away, 
 
 And one did seem the gambling man 
 
 Who owed me the sum of four pounds, ten; 
 
 Yet o'er this fact I did not ponder, 
 
NIGHT 29 
 
 For I had passed the stage of wonder 
 And to strange sights now at last 
 Became inured to all that passed. 
 
 xxxin 
 
 Grey dawn peeped down from o 'er the hill, 
 And shaking free from its nightly chill 
 The gladdened air hroke in a hreeze 
 And brushed the dewdrops from the trees, 
 Bright shining drops of silver dew 
 That glistened as they clung onto 
 Many a leaf and many a stem 
 Where they clustered like a diadem; 
 And then nearby a little bird 
 With sweetest notes I ever heard 
 Burst into song, his roundelay 
 Of welcome to the coming day; 
 And somewhere by a distant hill 
 I heard the sound of a rippling rill 
 Whose murmur low from its hidden lair 
 Came soothing sweet like a mother's prayer. 
 From above I heard an angePs bell 
 
30 NIGHT 
 
 Whose tinkles sprinkled as they fell 
 In melodies down the distant dell. 
 Then came showers of lilies shorn 
 From flowery wings of budding morn, 
 Airily they fell to the wrinkled sod 
 As light as steps by fairies trod. 
 And, ah, that glade, that hawthorn glade ! 
 So diff 'rent now a picture made : 
 There many a rose raised her head 
 And blushing a tender shade of red. 
 She waited for Sol to warm her bed. 
 While a spotted fawn leaped in play 
 Over the sward, and far away. 
 Then the sun uprose gleaming bright, 
 A burnished ball of golden light. 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 At last I turned my way to go ; 
 My back was bent, my step was slow. 
 My hoary hair was like the snow. 
 'Twas an aged man that bent his way. 
 But wiser quite, ah! who can say? 
 
NIGHT 31 
 
 **NoE scorn the end which fancy oft doth lend 
 The soul's eternal interests to promote; 
 Death, darkness, danger are our natural lot. 
 And evil spirits may our walk attend 
 For aught the wisest know or comprehend.''