Prince Apolidon the Mage Raised a mystic hermitage On an island in a shipless sea By necromantic potency, Carving the granite gateways of its cliffs With interdicting seals and hieroglyphs, That his unequals might not habit there, Nor drink that island's consecrated air. White terraces o'erhung the black abyss, Fair as the gardens Queen Semiramis Piled above Babylon: the glittering height Seemed as the day empillared on the night. And from the ocean-green of myrtle's shadow Rose a pavilion, which from afar Seemed to the eyes of shipmen as a star Shattered on a distant meadow. Betwixt this palace and the shipless sea The wizard set an arch of glamourie, Byzantine, builded as from golden air. Its fretted alcove held an image rare, In whose uplifted hand there burned and shone The brazen brightness of a clarion. And should a lady or a knight, Lesser in beauty or in might Than wise Apolidon the wight Or Grymenysa fair Seek to traverse the magic vault, Or make the palace by assault, The brazen trump would blare, And vomit such a horrid blast That, fainting from the garden cast, The wretch would perish there. But, should a knight of equal fame Or lady of unblemished name Seek entrance by the port, The trumpet, with a high fanfare Of praise, would waken all the air Of that celestial court. Two crystal pillars marked the magic line; A tablature of jasper, serpentine, Surround by arabesques like carven flame, On which would flash the lineage and name Of that illustrious paladin or dame, Gleamed in the Grecian pavement; who did pass Those pillars frozen in Phoenician glass Would see, 'mid splendour like reflecting ice, The lord and lady of that paradise Moulded in immortality of brass. Still deeper in those labyrinths of pleasure A siege right perilous the Mage did make For Grymenysa's fair, mysterious sake, For glory of a love withouten measure, Setting nine seals of Babylonian doom Upon the entrance to her ivory room, That but the highest hearts the world had seen Might know the rapture of its air serene. And that no sordidness might pass therein He sentinelled the door with savage jinn, Invisible and with the flaming powers Of Sheol in their guarding scimitars. And all the webs of his weird soul were woven, In mazy mystery of charm and spell, Around the shadows of that citadel, Where oft his wizard prowess had been proven. So did he leave the place of his delight To sinful spirits in a magic night, Calling on Siduri and Sabitu, And Baphomet, in syllables of might. And when the moon was in her thinnest phase He left that island in the shipless sea, No man knew how, nor evermore did he Return unto its labyrinthine ways.