[Sonnet I: The First Visitation] When sable welkin clos’d the dying day, I stray’d ‘mid charnel stones in mute decay; There stood a wight - gaunt, osseous array, Whose fell regard did draw my breath away. Her phalanges, long, did beckon me full near, Her eldritch gaze laid bare my trembling sprite; I quaff’d the dread that thick’ning hung in air, And bow’d beneath the puissance of Her sight. No leman warm could match that chill embrace, No mortal pulse withstand Her silent art; Though life yet stirr’d, I felt its slow erase, As She did grave Her seal upon my heart. Thus was I reft by Her sepulchral breath, And made the thrall and votary of Death. [Chorus] O Death, thou pale and dread eternal queen, I quaff’d thy chill as sacramental wine; Though yet I mov’d where living men are seen, My soul was seal’d—no more was wholly mine. [Sonnet II: The Sevenfold Quadrille] Again we met where ruin’d cloisters weep, Where wrack of years lay heap’d on sacred stone; Seven nights we trod where ancient dead men sleep, Seven days we whirl’d as if by fate o’erthrown. Her touch lay cold as frost on coffin lid, Her breath did still the fervor of my frame; Yet in that dread a fierce delight was hid, For all my will inclin’d unto Her name. I call’d Her leman, though She answer’d not, For Death keeps silence as Her only speech; Still was I bound unto that cursed lot, A thrall no mortal pleading e’er could reach. Thus deeper sank I in Her fell caress, And lost all claim my bondage to redress. [Pre-Chorus] No rest, no pause—seven suns in bloody pall, Seven moons beheld our macabre delight [Chorus] O Death, thou pale and dread eternal queen, I quaff’d thy chill as sacramental wine; Though yet I mov’d where living men are seen, My soul was seal’d—no more was wholly mine. [Sonnet III: The Bridal in Death Eternal] The third we met beneath a vaulted gloom, Where osseous heaps in dumb devotion lay; No more I yearn’d for hearth, nor light, nor bloom, But yield me whole unto Her stern array. “No more in twain,” She spake, “shalt thou remain,” And clasp’d my breath within Her bony hand; Thus fled my pulse, releas’d from mortal pain, And pass’d with Her unto that silent land. She took me whole—the sinew, marrow, lust, My beating heart ground down to honest dust For I was Hers, and Hers was I alone, Enthron’d where deathless stillness reigns evermore. Thus endeth breath—yet thus I e’er abide, The wedded thrall fast bound at Death’s cold side. [Chorus] O Death, thou pale and dread eternal queen, I quaff’d thy chill as sacramental wine; Though yet I mov’d where living men are seen, My soul was seal’d—no more was wholly mine. [Outro] O skeletal Queen, thou reaperess divine, In thee I dwell—my endless bliss is thine.
