The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.
King in Yellow
Robert W. Chambers
i'm not sure what this poem exactly means. but there's a sadness to it. what struck me was 'song of my soul, my voice is dead'.
ReplyDeleteI saw your reply to 'give the emperor some clothes' blog. and decided to check your blog out :)
Nana thank you, you are welcome to peek around the corners here as you will.
ReplyDeleteAs to the poem, sort of an unusual thing. Chambers when he was alive was noted mostly for a type of happy romantic fiction. Only in a few of his short stories did he stray from what was paying his bills.
In these stories he often cited "The King in Yellow." It is a banned or damned work that supposedly will drive to madness those who read it fully. The passage above is the only quote of any size attributed to the play itself.
"Carcosa" was a word that also briefly popped up in a short story by Ambrose Bierce around the same time.
That I married the concept with the king in yellow to the "obama" style poster of hope and change is just my personal whimsy and not political commentary of any sort.
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