When Chaugnar Wakes
Frank Belknap Long
(ca. 1926/35)
A billion miles beyond the suns
Which gild the edge of
space,
Great Chaugnar dreams, and there is hate
And fury on its face.
Beyond the universe of stars
Where red moons wane and
swim,
Great Chaugnar stirs, and heaves its bulk
Upon a crater's rim.
Its ropy arms descend to suck
Dark nurture from the
deeps
Of lava-pools within a cone
That shines whilst
Chaugnar sleeps.
Explorers from the outer stars
Have glimpsed that
glowing cone;
Have glimpsed the vast and silent shape
Asleep upon its throne.
Explorers from the world we know
Have seen that shape in
dreams;
Have watched its shadow fall and spread
On dim, familiar streams.
When Chaugnar wakes, its mindless hate
Will send it voyaging
far;
It may set Sirius adrift,
Or seek a humbler star.
A humbler star with satellites,
Small planets in its
train:
And that is why I kneel and kneel
Before Great Chaugnar's
fane.
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