Rear mighty temples to your god –
I lurk where shadows sway,
Till, when your drowsy guards shall nod,
To leap and rend and slay.

For I would hurl your cities down
And I would break your shrines
And give the site of every town
To thistles and to vines…

For all the works of cultured man
Must fare and fade and fall
I am the Dark Barbarian
That towers over all.

Robert E. Howard
“A Word from the Outer Dark”


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