Creatures of Light and Darkness

To Chip Delany, Just Because

Generations pass away and others go on, since

the time of the ancestors. They that build

buildings, their places are no more.

What has been done with them?

I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hardedef,

with whose sayings men speak so much.

What are their places now?

Their walls are crumbled, their

places are non-existent, as if they

had never been.

No one returns from there,

so that he might tell us their disposition,

that he might tell us how they are,

that he might still our hearts

until we shall go to the place where they have gone.

Make holiday and weary not therein!

Behold, it is not given to a man

to take his property with him.

Behold, no one who goes can come back again.

–Harris 500, 6:2-9.

Comus enters with a Charming Rod in one hand,

his Glass in the other; with him a rout of Monsters,

headed like sundry sorts of wild Beasts.

They come in making a riotous and unruly noise,

with Torches in their hands.

–Milton.

The Human Dress is forged Iron,

The Human Form a fiery Forge,

The Human Face a Furnace seal’d,

The Human Heart is hungry Gorge.

–Blake.