Betelguese Part 1

Betelguese.

by Jean Louis de Esque.

PREFACE

To the readers of this poem an apology is needed for affixing thereto a praem. Some friends of mine have been plaguing me beyond the restrictive line of Patience for the true cause of conceiving the accompanying collection of words, balderdash or what you will, some even a.s.severating with the eruditeness of an Aristole that it was a nebulous idea, an embryonic form of thought hibernating within the cavities of my sinciput's inner apex, the remnants of that wild phantasmagoric dream of "vicious, vulpine labyrinths of h.e.l.l," partly expounded in my "The Flight of a Soul."

Now to satisfy everybody but my friends I throw my prejudices to the winds and confess, to wit: That I, with the buckler of Will, wooed Oblivion on September the sixth at exactly 5 P.M., having been up at my desk mauling and drubbing the English language with a vengeance for thirty-six consecutive hours, and that I awoke at 12.30 A.M. that selfsame night with the entire contents of the accompanying----? (have as yet not decided in what category the critics will consign this weird hypotyposis of the Supernal) jingling through my tired brain. I set to work at exactly 12.45 A.M. and wrote until our esteemed companions of the nocturnal hours ceased their unloved music (mosquitos), 5.05 A.M., hied myself back to bed and hypothecated as many winks as Dame Slumber saw fit to allot to me, who am at continued war with her silent wand. The same tactics were employed during the succeeding fifteen nights, wherein I penned eight thousand one hundred and sixteen (8116) lines. This is the truth, the whole and integral truth, and nothing but the unexpurgated truth, so help me Muse (she's blind as a bat) and Satan, of whom I've writ in such an unbecoming manner that, henceforth, I must perforce seek my future Elysian in other haunts than those of the above named Cosmopoietic's own, for fear that his uncoped wrath may blast me into an ape-faced minstrel or, like one red-haired varlet draped with the cognomen of "Nero," use my unbleached bones for illuminating the highway to his insidiate lair.

To the readers this question may present itself, to wit: Why place h.e.l.l in the bowels of Betelguese? Why not the sun or moon?

In the first instance the former sphere is eliminated as a possibility on account of its nature. Being a huge nucleous ma.s.s of aeriform fluid, nothing containing animal or vegetable life could possibly exist either on or within its bowels. The moon, too, is excluded for the same reason as is our earth, it having at one time been a part of the latter, broken off by one of the giant planets long before the pleioncene era. Betelguese being a celestial pariah, an outcast, the largest of all known comets or outlawed suns in the universe; and, further, so long as h.e.l.l has not been definitely placed, why not figure this hybrid planet as a possibility?

Astronomers throughout the world remember the colossal outburst in the constellation Perseus that occurred on February 20, 1901, when one sun exploded, or two made collision with appalling force. It was observed through telescopes and could be seen with the naked eye in full daylight.

Both suns were destroyed as suns--that is, they were turned into thin gas and vanished from sight of the largest telescope within less than a year.

Had each sun been the centre of a system of eight worlds like our sun; and imagine each world, sixteen in all, to be inhabited with human beings; then they all perished in a short time after collision and died of what the astronomers call "fervent heat."

Vega, far more larger than our sun, appears stationary. Our sun, with its family of moons and comets, is moving toward it at the fearful pace of fourteen miles per second. At its present rate of speed--and if Vega is really a "fixed" planet--then our sun would reach it in 320,000 years.

However, it is a known certainty that the quant.i.ty of matter that is invisible is so much greater than the visible that the visible may be ignored. There may, too, be hundreds of millions of dark bodies, extinct constellations far larger than our own sun. Any one of these could approach our solar system and annihilate it with its impact for, in pa.s.sing the orbit of the earth on their way around the sun, they attain a regular velocity of 26-1/2 miles per second. If one of these dark comets should overtake the earth and strike it, the velocity of impact would be about eight miles per second; but if it should meet the earth in a head-on collision, the speed, when it struck, would be forty-five miles per second, a momentum beyond the power of the brain to fathom--indeed, man can not think of sixty miles per minute. Let a solid nucleous collide with the earth and imagination would reel at the result.

The earth moves over 18-1/2 miles every second, and this added to or subtracted from 26-1/2 makes 45 or 8. If a comet should strike at right angles to the direction of the earth's motion the speed of collision would be 26-1/2 miles. But 8, 26-1/2 or even 15 would hurl destruction if large enough.

A visible change is taking place in the giant sun Betelguese. Its nebulae is slowly but surely disappearing. One hundred years hence it may be a dark planet, invisible to even the most powerful telescope. However, h.e.l.l will reign on, through eons and eons; and, if this sun, or any other, contains its kingdom, and mankind lives for another thousand years or more, those who should be so unfortunate as to miss the jagged heights to Paradise need not worry, for glozing imps will lead them to the fasthold of Typhon's weird home. Have no fear.

September 22d, MCMVII.

WHEN I AM GONE

What good is Fame when I am dead and gone, When in immarcescible regions My temple rots and soul doth storm and mourn As bones of mine adorn an early grave?

Who'll hear and know that I worked hard and long, That twin sighs and tears storm'd me by legions, My life, a sunless one--bleak and forlorn.

No ray of light whilst I in thralldom slave?

What good is Fame when I am dead and gone, When in fenowed abyss', stark and cold, I wend my solemn footsteps and atone, Whilst Fame my brow doth crown with its renown?

Who'll know that heart and soul bled on and on, That storm-swept aches and woes were mine untold, My life a waste, from which there stole a moan, No Aureole whilst I in sorrow drown?

What good is Fame when I am dead and gone, When far and wide my praise is heard and sung, And busts and marble-heads my deeds unfurl To mult.i.tudes that knew me not in flesh?

Not when I'm gone care I for Renown's dawn, Now, whilst I labour at Fame's lowest rung, Let me reap dame Approval's brightest pearl And sip its olpe as I my battles thresh.

BETELGUESE

Caressed by crystal dews and light Beyond the realm of scale and fin, Incarian Thought flits Fancy wings To hazards where a crimson urn Makes scarlet this eternal height Of sunless suns and reigning sin,-- Flame-decked this plain of warring kings Where poisoned fumes and beacons burn!

And thro' the hyoids, huge and red, Past portals black and guidons bright To onyx lees and opal sands, The Cyclopean vaults of dwale, And cavern'd shapes that Typhon bled, Greet each wand'ring spectre's sight; Where pixies dance on wind-blown strands, Lurke gyte incubi in a hall.

Here, then, reigns gyving, batter'd Doom!

Where shadows vague and coffined light, Spit broths from splinter'd wracks and domes.

Where viscid mists and vulpine cries Rise from the moat of dungeoned gloom And rasp the stationed walls of night Until sequestered skulls and bones Are made to hear the moaning sighs That some mad t.i.tan, rayed in gold, Wrests from d.a.m.nation's siffling tomb.

And labyrinths of Horror's Home, 'Mid vapours green and aisles unsunned, Provoke each cursing mattoid's fold Until the night is changed to noon By cowled magicians on a dome.

Then wizardry, strange, unsummed, Reveals each varlet, Figgum's might: A hemless rabble from the South That some wild Trojan flayed and curs'd, Skirr thro' the Cauldron's broken lane And wing for implex strands and light.

There, where tapers flare on h.e.l.l's mouth This clan d.a.m.ns each giant Soldan first.

And Medeas in this vast plain, Who blink at yon dysodile lamps, Slap thenars and each bifurcous As javels drink from scyphus' bright.

Blood-curdling monsters on a rope That sate upon the d.a.m.n'd one's camps As h.e.l.l-winds gleam most glorious-- Each Vandal's music day or night!

Vain! vain! Each isle of hidden Hope!

Alas! Alas! Each olpe of Remorse!

Each vaulted soul and spiral thought, Swirl in the throes of waters cold; Where rivers with the venom crawls, Croak bat-faced incubi till hoa.r.s.e.

And succubi that Hecate taught, Bedecked in byss and spangled gold, Sing runes unto the dungeoned halls.

Then burning ghauts and crimsoned peaks, Vomit each, green, abhorrent clouds; The Temple's drum sounds tomb and death To those that came for unsung trust, And pyres that smouldered for three weeks.

Spit wenches' blood thro' addling crowds And filch each leering vyper's breath,-- Vile j.a.pes that dam all struck with dust!

Erelong unholy fugitives roam 'Mid imbosk caves and moaning dales To piercing screes of purple gloom, Where gurgling sighs and rasping moans,-- Each b.l.o.o.d.y vampyre's home of loam As life-tides drip to scarlet vales,-- Unshadowed haunts of darkling Doom!

Add terror to the rasping groans That roaring surfs of rubic blood Fling to each afrite's acrid crypt.

And mildewed skulls and ashen bones That lie before each pillared mount, Speak tidings of a leprous flood.

And where giants' carcants flare and sit, The battle-crests and surging foams That toss each swoll'n Cauldron's Count As pyramidal realms unsunned Glare at the stricken, tamper'd souls, Stark wenches seek blind seers of l.u.s.t And curse each monster's hairless head.

Where fungus-f.a.gots gleam unstunned As witches dig unfathomed holes And bury Helms in powdered dust, Sleep mourners of the newly dead Until rayed Aureoles bright, flare, And sparkle like Asian stars.

Hyperaspists of templed night, And yawning caverns cold and bleak, Forsake the crown of addling Care; Whilst afrites in bright jeweled cars, Lured by the phosph.o.r.escent light, Scale an immarcescible peak.

When giant uncus' of the d.a.m.n'd Shake Palsy's wand of brooding Fear, And Hecate spins her daughters round The whirling halls of spastic gloom; When afreets prance on blister'd sand As blood-shot jazels deck each peer, Each empire froths a raving hound That storms each zone of purple doom.

And scarlet foam and hiss of oils,-- Abhorrent signs of yawning h.e.l.l!

'Mid roaring winds and echoes loud As beaches ring with Torture's hold, Dim shapes writhe in a cauldron's coils While cancered ghouls sound Circe's bell; Where hideous screes stem the crowd, Faffling gawks gleam like burnished gold.

A gangrel imp that Satan flayed, Shrieks deeds of sin that man-wrecks wrought Ere gyving Death each culprit smote; Where straggling moonbeams cleft a dome, A Prince in splendor stands arrayed And rants his spleen unto a ghaut, Where mongrel whelps their sorrows wrote In channels with a harlot's bone.

A kingdom vast with jasper light Greet jejune souls within this shoal, Where witches lure each helot's eye, Each gyving hoodlum, seer and sage.

In blazing tankards gleams a sight As o'er their heads giant rocks roll, Of skinless nudes that gasp and die As poisoned lizards vent their rage.

Then, vile squats blast the eerie air!

Glozing gnomes of pond'rous built, Peer at plagues that G.o.ddard's hold; Writhe vermin in each ghoul-king's olpe,-- Blind death within a secret lair!

A varlet who his wine hath spilt As Scorpions smote him treblefold, Is thrown into a stagnant sea By Lordly Helm of bad repute, Whose visage, curl'd in ughly mien, Vext at each leper's font of spleen, Invokes a hairless witch to scan The shambling hordes that boon refute, Who lifts her unguis, long and lean, To curse each vyper's b.l.o.o.d.y dream, Each mongrel and forsaken man.

Then quivers that cippus' hurl'd As templed vaults are splinter'd wide; And fearful fancies cleave the night When reeking gores pierce hollows black, Smite vandals that in sleep are curl'd: And naiads that the vapours hide In shadows vague--Unholy light!

(Spectres to each soul on a wrack) Dank caverns of each vaulted soul With spiral thoughts of fevered haste, 'Mid the throb of murderous life In haunted zones of vandals gyte, Squirm at the pulse of this blind shoal Where blood-veined dreams and acrid waste Cut thro' the senses like a knife And bid Icarian Thought to sit Below a bleak, untower'd home, Where f.a.gots that the skelp hath stunned-- Plunderers of unfathomed night!

Glare thro' black shadows vague with forms Convulsed with cries that pierce each dome As impeached gumps seek plains unsunned, (Satellites to mounted Light!) Teem in the wind-strewn crest of thorns A phantom that a charnel urn Spewed from its lap and cancered fold,-- Trophies of grim Destiny's crypt!

A burning pyre, whose deadly breath Stir sighs of men as cesspools burn A harlot strewn with virgin gold That some malignant, stol'n script, Condemn'd to witches' fateful death, Spells reigning doom to one and all.

Where jarbling gumps ride hydras green, And utter sharp, a curdling curse, And wingless zimbs that storm each dell, Glare at each shatter'd dome and wall That speak of prowling apes in dream, Of dragons drawing Horror's hea.r.s.e When b.l.o.o.d.y lanes of soulless h.e.l.l Bathed monstrous this eternal land.

When Soldans clasp dank Vellum old, And carcants s.h.i.+ne like scarlet foam, With hiss of snakes and burning oils As dirges sway both imps and d.a.m.n'd, A beacon's light that cleft Doom's fold, Peers at the Cyclopean home Of furnace-heat and writhing coils Of immewed depths as cyphers red Proclaim each gyving monster's deed.

And woful runes rake this giant gloom, Phantastic coals lurk in the dust, Blind whelps lie in an onyx bed And ponder words as thumb-screws bleed (Unto the music of king Doom) Each gangrel villains heart of l.u.s.t.

Beyond the halls of numbered dead Where lambent lights and crystal dews Invoke the ghouls to guard each tomb That vandals of the sobbing night, When h.e.l.l-winds stir the conquered dead, And thunder shook the mourner's pews, Giant cavalcades of marshalled Doom March thro' the phosph.o.r.escent light Unto the headland of the West, Where pageantries of warriors bold Scyle crafty sins and purple l.u.s.ts Until the peaks and portals bright, Where buried kings are tombed at rest, Sweat odours dank with Torpor's cold; Infernal paeons shake the busts Of idols planted in the light.

And, ere immewed gyres froth black mists Unto all ghauts and splinter'd domes That cypher signs of dungeoned dell, A turgid dawn arrays this vale, Each dysodile scavenger sits On a tomb and fondles gray bones; An eyeless toad croaks from a well.

Then cosmic force forsakes each dale: 'Mis Cyclopean pulse of h.e.l.l Giant cauldrons vomit vapours green And skirr thro' bristling lanes and halls: Whilst beacons die and shrood each soul, Dank tears drop on a fatal bell, Wrought by a t.i.tan's sombre queen, Where graven vypers soop the walls With blood from maidens scourged as toll.

Sentinel silence then holds gloom!

Vile squats curse roaring pools inflame, A swarthy gump leers at the d.a.m.n'd, A sultry storm invades each realm.