Kaldorei Poetry

Compendium of
Kaldorei Songs
and Poems

Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements

PART 1

Hymns and Prayers of the Sisterhood of Elune
1 The Dusking Hour
SHAELYSSA BLADESINGER
2 The Dwindling Light
3 The Eventide
4 Glory to Elune
5 Her Word
6 Hollow
7 The Joy of Elves of Old
8 Lament to the Moon
9 Let us to the Moon Arise
10 Love Excelling
11 The Nightly Train
12 Peacefully Lying
13 She is the Compassionate
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER
14 She of All Things Divine
15 The Sky With Open Volume Stands
16 Thank You
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER
17 Those Who Suffer
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER
18 To the White Lady

PART 2

Songs and Poems of the Kaldorei
1 A Beast Called War
2 A Mother’s Love
HELEN STEINER RICE
3 The Battlefield
4 Beauty Obsessed
5 Because the Green Smog Bellows
6 The City in the Sea
EDGAR ALLEN POE
7 Composed in the Temple
8 Darnassus
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
9 Eternity’s End
COSMO MONKHOUSE
10 Her Language
11 Ignorance is Bliss
12 Indifference
13 Lament of the Past
SHAELYSSA BLADSINGER
14 Nature
15 New Barrow Dens of Old
16 Plea to Malfurion
BOEY KIM CHENG
17 Pied Beauty
GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS
18 Remorse
19 Retort
20 Silver
WALTER DE LA MARE
21 Song of Barkless Trees and Flightless Birds
22 Song of the Flower
KHALID GIBRAN
23 Stars
EMILY BRONTË
24 Stormy Passage
HARNA
25 Swallow Me Whole, O Ceaseless Skies!

26 Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
ANONYMOUS
27 Winter
WALTER DE LA MARE

PART 2

Night Elven Haiku
A collection of night elven haiku by various authors.

Introduction
Compendium of Kaldorei Songs and Poems contains work by several different poets. You may
recognise some of the poems contained within this compendium as the work of several
famous and established poets, while others are poems written by various people in the game,
and finally, a few of the poems are inspired or were edited from their original format to
become more relative to the night elves and the Warcraft world.

Acknowledgements
“She is the Compassionate” by Sorayah Moonseeker, a player on Defias Brotherhood EU.
“Thank You” by Sorayah Moonseeker, a player on Defias Brotherhood EU.
“Those Who Suffer” by Sorayah Moonseeker, a player on Defias Brotherhood EU.
“Plea to Malfurion” by Boey Kim Cheng, original name “Report to Wordsworth”.
“Eternity’s End” by Cosmo Monkhouse, original name “Any Soul to Any Body”.
“Nature” by Shaelyssa Bladesinger, inspired by “Time” by Allen Curnow.
“Stormy Passage” by Harna, a player on Defias Brotherhood EU.
A haiku by Deimes, a player on Sporeggar EU.

Part 1
Hymns and Prayers of the
Sisterhood of Elune

1
The Dusking Hour

Hail the night that sees her rise,
To her throne above the skies,
Moonlight, the blessing of her children given,
As she enters now the highest heaven!

See, she lifts her hands above,
See, she sheds her beams of love;
Listen, her gracious lips bestow,
Blessings to her children below.

O Elune, your love in ages past,
Your shelter from the stormy blast,
Were sweet blessings for years to come,
Beneath the stars and their heavenly hum.

When our world was near its dusking hour,
You came to us with your wondrous power,
And saved us from our terrible plight,
With your rays of sacred light!

Though you have parted from our sight,
Far above in the starry height,
Bless our hearts so that they may rise,
Seeking you above the skies!

2
The Dwindling Light

Cast out your voices in eternal song,
Send forth your spirits from this thorny throng,
And drink from the moon-touched beams,
That flow high above from the starry streams.

To Elune and her most blessed light,
To the Ancients of sovereign might;
As the fiery sun now departs,
Shed your sacred beams within our hearts!

Fear not the turbid ebb and flow,
But await the love she does bestow,
To all her children gone to rest,
On her warm and motherly breast.

Shield us now from this fiercest blaze,
And to you we give everlasting praise,
Of all your bounteous joy and love,
That descend from high above.

3
The Eventide

Open your hearts to the star-strewn skies,
In bathed moonlight, bestowed to our eyes;
To Elune most blessed, most loved, the Ancient of Nights,
Most beautiful, most heavenly, the greatest of sights.

Deliver us from the day, your children of the stars,
Grant us strength, the power to mend our faultless scars;
To all life she gives, to both great and small;
In all life she lives, the true life of all.

Unresting, unhasting, and pure as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, she rules in might;
Her justice like mountains soaring high above,
Her clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

We blossom and flourish as leaves on a tree,
And wither and vanish, but not changes thee;
O Elune! most blessed, most cherished,
Accept our love and praise from we who have not perished!

4
Glory to Elune

Glory to you, Elune, upon this night,
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep us under your watchful eye,
And to the heavens our souls will cry.

Teach me to live, so that I may dread,
The grave as little as my leafy bed;
Teach me to die, so that I might
Rise glorious to this most blessed night.

O may my soul on you repose,
And may sweet sleep upon my eyelids close;
And once the sleep fades from my eyes,
My heart shall rise to you above the skies.

When in the day I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness to me molest.

Praise Elune, from whom all blessings flow,
Praise her, all creatures here below,
Praise her above, o heavenly moon,
Praise mother, warrior, and great Elune!

5
Her Word

With your kind word, our lives began,
With your hand, started the heavenly plan,
And your glorious light was then seen,
Amidst all of your beauty serene.

Praise and love our dying race,
With the abundance of your grace,
Keep far our foes, give peace at home,
Where you dwell and no ills can roam.

Your light fills the eternal heaven,
And shines upon your children riven,
Turned asunder by wicked love betrayed,
Cursed, mocked and in watery robes arrayed.

Cast out with your motherly light,
The dullness of our hindered sight;
The white face that ascends above,
Is comfort, life and peace of love.

Cherish and love she who does not forsake,
Cherish and love the peace she does awake,
And through her the forests’ songs are said,
The last whispers of our starry dead.

6
Hollow

This sacred altar had once stood,
As a great beacon in this frosted wood,
Yet now it lies with broken soul,
So Elune, o please, render it anew and whole!

The skies are now darkened be,
The stars vanish, the heavens shall flee,
And the planets halt their nightly roll,
As despair spreads from pole to pole.

Our hearts shall forever clamour,
And our tongues will eternally stammer,
As our souls, now choked in brine,
Endlessly lament you altar most divine.

Our hearts cry tears of blood,
O Elune! please end this terrible flood,
That tears apart the sinews of our souls,
And pierces our spirits with deep holes.

We sing to you from night to noon,
O please, heed this tortured tune:
Forgive us, o great Mother Moon,
Forgive us, o most beloved Elune!

7
The Joys of Elves of Old

As with the joy of elves of old,
Did the guiding moon behold,
With the love that hailed their light,
Did she kiss them every night;
So, most beloved Elune, may we
Forever be led to thee.

As with the wayward steps they tread,
Did they fall to their watery bed,
There to bend their knees before,
He who scale and fin adore;
So may we with faithful feet,
Be ever seeking your heavenly seat.

As they offered gifts most rare,
At his crib: crude and bare,
We gave ourselves to your joy,
Pure and free from sin’s employ;
So let us breathe the sweet air,
Of your kind and motherly care.

O great Elune, with every passing night,
Keep us in your heavenly light,
And when earthly things are past,
Bring our souls to you at last,
Where they need no stars to guide,
Where no clouds keep you and hide.

8
Lament to the Moon

Cry out, my heart some heavenly tune
Shining above us, the great Mother Moon;
Guiding our arrows, our swords and our glaives,
As we bring down her wrath like the coming of waves.

Fear not, the death approaching us now
Hanging down, our looming end from the bough;
Yearning always for her comforting embrace,
As she guides us through that which we cannot face.

Remember, sweet dew atop the grave of the keeper
Blowing, whisper through the thorn of the sleeper;
Awakening the dreams and the daymares,
As they appear upon his face, the tremulous flares.

Cast away, the glimmering doubt of the past
Tearing away, that which will not last;
Nurturing new stars in the endless sky,
As we grow from what has passed us by.

End, all that which cannot be undone,
Extinguishing, the burning fiery sun
And dripping down from the pale moonlight,
The hope of new life – just out of sight!

9
Let us to the Moon Arise

Come, let us to the moon arise,
Elune, who made both land and skies,
And gave earth gifts of life and peace,
And sung to the turmoil that did cease.

This is the night that she has made,
So that all may see her glory displayed,
Be filled with all the life of the Mother Moon,
And hear her beautiful and heavenly tune.

So let us render her love our own,
With solemn prayer approach her throne,
That our joyful hearts and voices raise,
And fill the heavens with songs of praise.

O clothe us in your celestial armour,
And end our hearts’ eternal clamour;
Give and withhold, let pain and pleasure be,
Simply let us know that we are serving thee.

10
Love Excelling

O love divine and all love excelling,
Let us into your celestial dwelling;
Joy of heaven, to earth came down,
That all your faithful servants do crown.

Though you have ascended up far high,
You bend on us a mother’s eye;
Pure and spotless let us be,
Perfectly restored within thee.

You, we are always blessing,
Pray, praise and without ceasing,
Till in the skies we take our place,
Lost in wonder, love and praise.

In every pang that stills our heart -
That the stormy blast had a part,
She sympathizes with our grief,
And to the sufferer sends relief.

With love and praise at your throne,
Let us make all our sorrows known,
And ask the aid of heavenly power,
To help us in the mourning hour.

11
The Nightly Train

Here she comes with clouds ascending,
Once for favoured blood now slain;
Thousands and thousands stars attending,
As they sing the triumph of her nightly train:
Hail to the night!
Elune appears in the skies tonight.

Every mortal eye shall look upon her light,
Robed in celestial majesty;
Those who mocked and scolded her sight,
Laughed and scorned their crown tree,
Now lay steeped in burning waters,
With the scale’s wailing daughters.

Those dear gifts of your love,
Still dazzle far up high,
They glimmer and shimmer from above,
So all we below may upon them spy;
Let our souls to you soar,
And sleep with you forevermore.

Let all adore and worship thee,
Up high on your eternal throne;
O Elune, take your grace and glory,
And claim our hearts for your own:
Hail to the night!
Elune appears in the skies tonight.

12
Peacefully Lying

O blessed maker of the heavens,
Grant us solace from our ancient sins,
Erase the blunders of ages past,
And soften the thunders of the stormy blast.

We sing to you with cheerful tune,
Transcending our love to the great Mother Moon,
And seeking the keeper’s blessed boon,
For the hardship that is to come soon.

Gracious are her starlit eyes,
Which gaze upon us from the skies,
With the motherly care and love,
That she does bestow from far above.

Guard us waking, guard us sleeping,
And may we be in your mighty keeping;
When the night comes for us to die,
Let us all in the skies peacefully lie.

The day you gave, Elune, has ended,
To you the evening hymns ascended,
And as the darkness falls at your behest,
Your light shall sanctify our eternal rest.

13
She is the Compassionate
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER

She is the Compassionate, the All-Bountiful!
O Goddess, our Goddess!
You see us, you know us;
You are our Haven and our Refuge.
None have we sought nor any will we seek save You;
no path have we trodden nor any will we tread
but the path of Your love.
In the white afternoon of despair,
our eyes turn expectant and full of hope
to the night of Your boundless favor,
and at the hour of nightfall our drooping souls are refreshed
and strengthened in remembrance of Thy beauty and perfection.
She whom the grace of Your mercy aideth,
though she is but a drop,
shall become the boundless ocean,
and the merest speck of dirt which,
the outpouring of Your loving kindness assisting,
shall shine as a radiant star.

Shelter under Your protection, O Great Mother Moon,
You who are the beloved Mistress of us all,
these enthralled, enkindled servants of Yours.
Aid them in this world of being,
to remain steadfast and firm in Your love,
and grant that this broken-winged bird
may attain a refuge and shelter in Your divine nest
that abides upon the celestial tree.

14
She of All Things Divine

Soon as the evening shades prevailed,
The beautiful visage was then unveiled:
The moon took up the wondrous tale,
Of the love she set far assail,
And nightly to the listening earth,
Sung the story of her birth,
As all the stars around her burn,
And all the planets with her turn,
Repeating the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

The spacious hollows far up high,
Dance with the ethereal night sky,
The spangled heavens, the shining frame,
Both cast their light and sing her name;
The unwearied moon from night to night,
Goes she to display her glorious light,
And reveal to every land,
The makings of her mighty hand.

What though in silence solemn,
Can raise her to her mighty column?
What though in earthly voice or sound,
Can speak the grace that she found?
To all ears did she rejoice,
And uttered forth in glorious voice,
“Heed my call, approach my shrine,
For I am she of all things divine.”

15
The Sky With Open Volume Stands

The sky with open volume stands,
To spread its mistress’ light away,
To shed her love with heaven’s hands,
And set our hearts out to eternally pray.

Open wide the gates of your heart,
Make it a temple to set apart,
From earthly use, for heaven’s employ,
Adorned with prayer, love and joy.

With great love we meditate the grace,
Of that beautiful, white and heavenly face;
Her heart is made of life and light,
That shines through this darkest night.

In great awe, we fall to our knees,
In great love, we seek to please;
Let us bathe in your motherly love,
And send praise to you far above.

I would forever speak her name,
And sing of the love she set aflame,
In sounds to mortal ears unknown,
With worship at her alabaster throne.

Yet what tongue in heaven’s employ,
Can speak the songs of her bounteous joy?
For she is great, she is mother, she is moon,
She is beautiful, white and mighty Elune.

16
Thank You
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER

Night Warrior, Mother Moon, Goddess,
Thank you for your presence during these difficult and harsh times,
for then we have you to lean upon.
Thank you for your presence during the dark and starry nights,
for then we can have rest and comfort beneath your sacred light.
And thank you for your presence during these prayers,
for then we are able to celebrate you, and our families, and our friends.
For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.
For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness.
For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them
in the river of your healing.
For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.
For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.
Dear Elune, You, celestial mother of us all,
we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most:
Peace.

17
Those Who Suffer
SORAYAH MOONSEEKER

For those who suffer,
and those who cry this night,
give them repose, Goddess;
a pause in their burdens.
Let there be minutes
where they experience peace.
Love them, Goddess,
when others cannot.
Hold them, Goddess,
when we fail with kaldorei arms.
Hear their prayers
and give them the ability to hear You back,
in whatever language they best understand.

18
To the White Lady

O blessed creator of the starry height:
Your children’s everlasting light,
Elune, mother to us all,
Hear your servants’ desperate call!

You, sorrowing at the helpless cry
Of all creation doomed to die,
Yet still you come to save our fallen race,
With healing gifts of heavenly grace.

At your great name, much blessed now,
All knees in great awe do bow;
All things above and earth adore,
And admire you forevermore.

Let us approach her celestial shrine,
And sing to Elune most divine,
Elune be praised, for her glory and might!
Elune be praised, for her heavenly light!]

Part 2
Songs and Poems of the Kaldorei

1
A Beast Called War

Look at the great mangy beast
As he rears his ugly horned head
Laying waiting for him to be fed
His ruby platter of a misery-cooked feast.

Hear his tormented grating roar
That shreds through the emerald haven
As he lays there with his blood glazed grin
And tramples through what he has tore.

What is he but a means to an end
Of all things beautiful, pious and pure.
He is a cancerous disease with no cure
That sends our children to the heavens they ascend.
He is a beast called War,
And he is always, always hungering for more.

2
A Mother’s Love
HELEN STEINER RICE

A Mother's love is something
that no on can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendorous miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous gift
from Elune's tender guiding hand.

3
The Battlefield

A field of daffodils waved to me,
As they sprang this way and that for all to see.
They skipped through the field and danced here and
There upon the moonlit strand.
They raised their blades of grass
To the starry, night sky en masse
As they opened their plumes of petal
And brought down a mighty flurry of metal.

4
Beauty Obsessed

Many, many moons ago,
When the stars were still aglow,
There lived a great and beautiful elf,
Pure and loving as Elune herself.

She sang of wonder and her love,
From her throne far, far above;
She spoke of her newfound power
And vanished like a dying flower.

And thus we cried in despair,
Begged Elune to hear our prayer;
O please, end this terrible dream,
Where is she, our beloved queen!
(Yet was this horror not forseen?)

5
Because the Green Smog Bellows

The oak and willow tree spoke to me
Of words untold upon the wooded meadow,
“Why does the blue-bird sing?” asked the oak tree,
“Because the black crow shrieks,” replied the willow.

The sea and land spoke to me
Of deeds undone upon the moon-blanched sand,
“Why does the owl hunt?” asked the sea,
“Because the vulture pilfers,” replied the land.

The bee and fly spoke to me
Of thing bygone upon the tranquil sky,
“Why does the peacock dance?” asked the bee,
“Because the ostrich lumbers,” replied the fly.

I look upon the meadow, the sand and the sky,
And see nought but havoc wreaked
By the black crow, vulture and the fly,
Amidst the bountiful beauty eked
By the blue-bird, owl and peacock.

And I ask myself,
“Why does the silver light fade away?”

6
The City in the Sea
EDGAR ALLEN POE

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim [East],
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently —
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free —
Up domes — up spires — up kingly halls —
Up fanes — up Nordrassil-like walls —
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers —
Up many and many a marvelous shrine
Whose wreathéd friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in the air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

Their open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye —
Not the gaily-jeweled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass —

No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea —
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.

But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave — there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide —
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow —
The hours are breathing faint and low —
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.

7
Composed in the Temple

I looked over the moonlit mead,
So white, so beautiful, so pure -
And saw all of which had been freed:
A crippling addiction with no cure
And a long forgotten taint, once weak
But now laying waste to all it can reach.
But still I see the silver pail,
Knowing well it will not fail
During all the dire times
In which I tell these ill-begotten rhymes.

8
Darnassus
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would she be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the evening; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did the moon more beautifully steep
In her first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear Elune! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

9
Eternity’s End
COSMO MONKHOUSE

So we must part, my body, you and I
Who've spent so many pleasant years together.
'Tis sorry work to lose your company
Who clove to me so close, whate'er the weather,
From winter into winter, wet or dry;
But you have reached the limit of your tether,
And I must journey on my way alone,
And leave you quietly beneath a stone.

They say that you are altogether bad
(Forgive me, 'tis not my experience),
And think me very wicked to be sad
At leaving you, a clod, a prison, whence
To get quite free I should be very glad.
Perhaps I may be so, some few days hence,
But now, methinks, 'twere graceless not to spend
A tear or two on my departing friend.

Now our long partnership is near completed,
And I look back upon its history;
I greatly fear I have not always treated
You with the honesty you showed to me.
And I must own that you have oft defeated
Unworthy schemes by your sincerity,
And by a blush or stammering tongue have tried
To make me think again before I lied.

'Tis true you're not so handsome as you were,
But that's not your fault and is partly mine.
You might have lasted longer with more care,
And even now, with all your wear and tear,
'Tis pitiful to think I must resign
You to the friendless grave, the patient prey
Of all the hungry legions of Decay.

But you must stay, dear body, and I go.
And I was once so very proud of you:

You made my mother's eyes to overflow
When first she saw you, wonderful and new.
And now, with all your faults, 'twere hard to find
A slave more willing or a friend more true.
Ay - even they who say the worst about you
Can scarcely tell what I shall do without you.

10
Her Language

Listen – to the barking of the bird,
To the weeping of the willow gone unheard.
Listen – to the pulse of the pine tree,
To the fervent song of the singing bumble-bee.
Listen – to the trembling of the rose,
To the laughter of the river as it flows.
Listen – to the whispering between the trees,
To the groaning of the tempered seas.
Listen – to the voice that calls to you;
Hear you not the voice as it calls to you,
Calls to you?

11
Ignorance is Bliss

I looked over the fields of green,
And wondered what should have been seen:
The mother doe and her child deer,
As she plays in the primrose bushes with no fear.
The preying owl and the little mouse,
As he carries his feast to his tree-topped house.
The buzzing bees and the summer flower,
As they fly up to their honey-comb tower.

What a sweet blessing it would be
To be ignorant to what is truly there to see:
The nest of green sickness and its relentless assault.
The bed of eternal sleep and its echoing fault.
Yes! - what a sweet blessing it would be
To be ignorant to what is truly there to see.

12
Indifference

Be you blind not to see
The taint upon the snow-crowned tree?
The moon lies fair
But the trees are bare,
With the stars dying like a closing flower
As she looks down from her alabaster tower.

13
Lament of the Past

Far above in the bright night sky,
Lays all of which has passed us by:
Countless struggles and countless wars
In an endless sea of terrible stars.

Far below in the deep strong earth,
Lays all of which has given birth to hurt:
Countless graves and countless aches
In an unforgiving storm that never forsakes.

Upon the ground that we plough,
Grows the tree of fruitful bough,
That bears a sour, sour fruit
Of all the flowers that have gone mute
Beneath the fiery morning sun
- that does not warm, but burn.

14
Nature

I am the winter rain that falls from above
I am the great stag and his powerful shove
I am the child deer and her mother’s love.

I am the sweet scent of the summer flower
I am the queen bee in her honey-comb tower
I am the striped saber causing need to cower.

I am the autumn wind carried to the forest
I am the baby hatchlings singing in their nest
I am where the deceased finally go to rest.

I am the young stream flowing beside the hill
I am the branded owl diving in to kill
I am the helpless mouse that now lies forever still.

I, Nature, am all these, yet these dwell
In my ocean of leathery leaves as if it were a well
Of all these things that I do tell.

I, Nature, live, grow, die
Yet still my endless tendrils reach to the sky:
I, no matter how hard the green sickness does try

Am here, am eternal, am father, mother, and child,
Though I am of all things wild;
I am what all things must abide.
I am Everlasting, the Beginning and the End.
I am Nature.

15
New Barrow Dens of Old

Deep within the barrow dens
Lay the sleeping ones of old
Who wait to see what will unfold
About how to make amends
For bygone mistakes of ancient times.

Comes the tempered calls of old
Who cry out at what they behold:
Spoilt forests causing need to cleanse
Their unforgotten and ancient crimes.

Grows the great sickness of new
Blunders upon the morning dew:
Cherished life that he spends
With these failing and newborn rhymes.

16
Plea to Malfurion
BOEY KIM CHENG

You should be here, Nature has need of you.
She has been laid waste. Smothered by the smog,
the flowers are mute, and the birds are few
in a sky slowing like a dying clock.
All hopes of Malorne rising from the sea
have sunk; he is entombed in the waste
they dump. Remulos' notes struggle to be free,
his famous horns are choked, his eyes are dazed,
and Cenarius lies helpless as a beached whale,
while insatiate orc moves in for the kill.
Poetry and piety have begun to fail,
as Nature's mighty heart is lying still.
O see the wound widening in the sky,
Elune is laboring to utter her last cry.

17
Pied Beauty
GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS

Glory be to Elune for dappled things -
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; flinches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
She mothers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Her.

18
Remorse

I have slept undisturbed through many a long century
And as I now awake from my once eternal slumber
I find myself unable to restrain this ever-growing fury
That has risen from the scattered wreckage of spoilt lumber.

What horrors have been unleashed upon our lands!
They have swept through our once tranquil forests
As terror seeps into our now blood-soaked sands.
Can you not hear the heart-wrenching chorus?

Look, listen – feel the agonising pain within the earth;
The trees groan with aching hurt – the laughter of the streams
Has finally dulled into a sombre and morbid rebirth
Of all that had been lamented in Her warm and comforting beams.

Rise up my brothers; rise up my sisters!
And tame the unrelenting storm
Of past hurt and past blisters,
Of past regrets that have been reborn
In the thorny thicket that we will forever mourn.

19
Retort

Blood and thunder? Ha!
If honourable be your race,
Then red wires grow from my face!
You speak of glory and honour,
Yet no glory I see in your tides of horror.
You are nothing but a band of fiendish brutes
Who wreak havoc in their bloodthirsty pursuits.
What is your leader but a pitiful mule!
He feeds upon destruction as if it were fuel
For the raging inferno which he creates
To quench the bloodlust that never sates
Your growing and everlasting hunger
For blood and thunder!

20
Silver
WALTER DE LA MARE

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy coat the white breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

21
Song of Barkless Trees and Flightless Birds

The nightingale flies across the dew-glazed forest,
She dips her wings into the pale moonlight,
And soars to her tree-topped nest
Where she relieves her hatchlings of their lonely fright.

The frosted owl circles through the starry night,
He pierces through the thick canopy,
And lunges for his meal on sight
Where he raises his blood-smeared beak to the sky.

The black saber stalks into the secluded glade,
She floats into the dark undergrowth,
And howls in pain for cubs mislaid
Where she weeps with clawed paws sprung forth.

The green sickness rages tormentingly into the tranquil land,
It strikes mercilessly with its mighty horned head,
And destroys all that touches the gnarled hand,
Where it laughs mockingly of things unsaid.

The nightingale, the frosted owl and the black saber,
All lay lowly in the once tranquil land,
Their small lives ever dwindling and waver
About things upon the moon-blanched strand
As we raise up in defense
And at the green sickness – we strike everlasting offence.

22
Song of the Flower
KHALID GIBRAN

I am a kind word uttered and repeated
By the voice of Nature;
I am a star fallen from the
Blue tent upon the green carpet.
I am the daughter of the elements
With whom Winter conceived;
To whom Spring gave birth; I was
Reared in the lap of Summer and I
Slept in the bed of Autumn.

At dawn I unite with the breeze
To announce the coming of light;
At eventide I join the birds
In bidding the light farewell.

The plains are decorated with
My beautiful colors, and the air
Is scented with my fragrance.

As I embrace Slumber the eyes of
Night watch over me, and as I
Awaken I stare at the sun, which is
The only eye of the day.

I drink dew for wine, and hearken to
The voices of the birds, and dance
To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.

I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.

But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn.

23
Stars
EMILY BRONTË

Ah! why, because the dazzling sun
Restored our Earth to joy,
Have you departed, every one,
And left a desert sky?

All through the night, your glorious eyes
Were gazing down in mine,
And, with a full heart's thankful sighs,
I blessed that watch divine.

I was at peace, and drank your beams
As they were life to me;
And revelled in my changeful dreams,
Like petrel on the sea.

Thought followed thought, star followed star,
Through boundless regions, on;
While one sweet influence, near and far,
Thrilled through, and proved us one!

Why did the morning dawn to break
So great, so pure, a spell;
And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek,
Where your cool radiance fell?

Blood-red, he rose, and, arrow-straight,
His fierce beams struck my brow;
The soul of nature sprang, elate,
But mine sank sad and low!

My lids closed down, yet through their veil
I saw him, blazing, still,
And steep in gold the misty dale,
And flash upon the hill.

I turned me to the pillow, then,
To call back night, and see

Your worlds of solemn light, again,
Throb with my heart, and me!

It would not do--the pillow glowed,
And glowed both roof and floor;
And birds sang loudly in the wood,
And fresh winds shook the door;

The curtains waved, the wakened flies
Were murmuring round my room,
Imprisoned there, till I should rise,
And give them leave to roam.

Oh, stars, and dreams, and gentle night;
Oh, night and stars, return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn;

That drains the blood of suffering men;
Drinks tears, instead of dew;
Let me sleep through his blinding reign,
And only wake with you!

24
Stormy Passage
HARNA

Through pass and veil
- and winter's snow
Through Mountains crying sorrow,
We seek the path to lead us Home
at ever facing morrow.

The dusk is grave, we cannot go
without the reassurance,
That Elune is here with all her glow
in dark time does Appearance.

Elune we seek, when trust forfeits
for She is our Shelter,
Through hope and fear and darkest nights,
with Her we shall not falter.

25
Swallow Me Whole, O Ceaseless Skies!

The stars, the moon, and the skies,
All vanished before my closed eyes;
The virgin morning touched my lips,
And showed me the golden water he sips.

He robbed the heavens of the stars,
As she wrote her twisted tales in my scars:
She snapped the heartstrings twined to hers,
And awoke a beast that now in me stirs.

The dawning sun ended my hindered sight,
And called forth a warming light;
Faithful to you I always was,
Despite our sisters' incessant buzz.

Yet my heart cried blood,
Once I saw that fearful flood,
It engulfed you whole,
And severed apart my broken soul.

Though why do you leave me now,
Beneath this crippled bough?
There is no youth, no hope of greatness,
Only the pangs and waves of this listlessness.

So swallow me whole, o ceaseless skies!
Return me to my deserved demise,
Within the far and watery deep,
To end the aches that in my veins now seep.

26
Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
ANONYMOUS

Weep you no more, sad fountains;
What need you flow so fast?
Look how the snowy mountains
Heaven's moon doth gently waste.
But my moon's heavenly eyes
View not your weeping,
That now lies sleeping
Softly, now softly lies
Sleeping.

Sleep is a reconciling,
A rest that peace begets:
Doth not the moon rise smiling
When fair at morn she sets?
Rest you then, rest, sad eyes,
Melt not in weeping,
While he lies sleeping,
Softly, now softly lies
Sleeping.

27
Winter
WALTER DE LA MARE

Clouded with snow
The cold winds blow,
And shrill on leafless bough
The robin with its burning breast
Alone sings now.

The rayless sun,
Day's journey done,
Sheds its last ebbing light
On fields in leagues of beauty spread
Unearthly white.

Thick draws the dark,
And spark by spark,
The frost-fires kindle, and soon
Over that sea of frozen foam
Floats the white moon.

1

A preying owl
Dips his beak in the moonlight
And drinks cool water.

2
RICHARD WRIGHT

In the falling snow
A laughing boy holds out his palms
Until they are white.

3

In the falling snow
A laughing boy holds out his palms
Until they are white.

4

Falling rain at night
Sweetening swelling blossoms
With honey nectar.

5
DEIMES

Upon the guilty
And innocent alike,
The moon shines.

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