The Unspeakable (1965)

XXI. THE UNSPEAKABLE

I drank the golden mead and did those things

Of which I read within the ancient book.

The wind awoke. The elms and willows shook

Before the thunder of fantastic wings.

Down from the cosmic gulfs the monster fell,

The grim, stupendous, bat-winged Byakhee,

Come from the cloudy shores of Lake Hali,

Black-furred and iron-beaked, with eyes of Hell.

When I bestrode its back, the beast unfurled

Its vast and mighty wings. Across dark seas

Of space we flew. Amid the Hyades

We reached at last that bleak and mythic world

To men forbidden and by gods abhorred,

Carcosa, where the great Hastur is Lord.