Wreathed in the shadow-glow of eldritch light

The tombs of men glide forth in time

Borne upon a poisoned stream of death and blight

And life itself lacks reason and a rhyme

What cargoes bear these stony carriages of death?

The thoughts of men all snared by silvered stars sublime

Tormented echoes of a million dying breaths

And still life has no reason and no rhyme

Hush! Rest quiet now within thy tomb

Within thy withered breast the dawn doth softly chime

For death is but the entrance to the womb

But life has yet no reason and no rhyme

Hear the hiss and kiss of ice against the clinking stone

Gentle waves of darkness weave your sorrowed rhyme

Quicken now oh man! and for thy sins atone

But know, life has no reason and no rhyme

The stream now darkens into blood

Like logs the stony tombs do float and clash amid the slime

The sea of death approaches like a flood

See, death itself has neither reason nor a rhyme

Wider, ever wider flow the waters of the dead

Chill stony tombs are plucked like grapes from hell’s own vine

Quickened now as dawn approaches comes thy breath

So death has breath if neither reason nor a rhyme

Fly now to quickened egg within the womb

Hear softly how thy mother’s breath doth mime

The gentle breeze suffused with winters’ doom

Seek earnestly thy reason and thy rhyme

Burst forth upon the world renewed

Make good the ills of life now buried all in lime

Love well, all cruelty eschew

Live joyously  thy reason and thy rhyme