Haunted Wood
Necromancers:
Now is the hour:
as night approaches;
As withdraws the sun,
let dreams haste hither!
Let every tree watch
with eyes a-blaze;
Let the crevasses gape
as cavernous maws;
Let the breeze, leaf-laden
through the branches quivering
Turn crooked boughs
into clutching talons,
Hollow oaks
into howling phantoms,
Weeping willows
into wicked witches,
Glow-worms
into a ghoulish gaze,
And the shadows of palms
into sharp-toothed monsters;
Let a fall from the bank
into foaming shallows
Turn rotten logs
into ravenous caimans
Slippery soil into pseudo-ophidians
And tatter’d roots
into terrible tentacles;
Let fear and terror
follow him everywhere,
Let horrors harry
and haunt him endlessly!
Within the hour, he leapt to his feet
and ran about
like a young elephant in breeding-season,
and trampled all in his path.
Every tree watched him
with eyes a-blaze;
Crevasses gaped
as cavernous maws;
The breeze, leaf-laden
through the branches quivering
Turned crooked boughs
into clutching talons,
Hollow oaks
into howling phantoms,
Weeping willows
into wicked witches,
Glow-worms
into a ghoulish gaze,
And the shadows of palms
into sharp-toothed monsters;
A fall from the bank
into foaming shallows
Turned rotten logs
into ravenous caimans,
Slippery soil
into pseudo-ophidians,
And tatter’d roots
into terrible tentacles;
Fear and terror
followed him everywhere,
While horrors harried
and haunted him endlessly.