In the fustian gloom of the tower
something moves to give room to spiders.
the lips of hell part with a smile
pleased with its progeny and its guile
and the sun slinks away
from its slit in the wall
where archers of old
felled the pressing horde.
Nothing has ever left these chambers
and fear congeals with rotting straw
strewn across the stone flagged floor
where creep and crack speak low
of something we should not wish to know.
lots to enjoy here. the shortening of the lines and tower formation in the middle is excellent and trips off the tongue. the line 'where creep and crack speak low' is lovely, and the whole thing flashes memories of every ruin ive ever visited and the episode of blackadder where they are stuck in the dungeon by prince ludwig the indestructable. which is no mean feat!
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M.C. Newberry
Sun 23rd Aug 2015 15:38
Shades of M.R.James! Atmospheric...working on a number
of levels. It took me back to visiting the chamber in
Berkeley Castle (in the 1950s) where it is said that the
unseated King Edward 11 was murdered on the orders of
his ambitious hate-filled queen and her lover. The location
then must have been awful in every sense, with the
castle set above a desolate river plain and its cluster of
peasants' hovels with their impotent fear-filled occupants.
"The shrieks through Berkeley's rafters ring
The screams of an agonising king"