The source document of this text is not known. Please see this document's talk page for details for verification. "Source" means a location at which other users can find a copy of this work. Ideally this will be a scanned copy of the original that can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and proofread. If not, it is preferably a URL; if one is not available, please explain on the talk page.

This page does not provide license information. Pages with no license information may be nominated for deletion. If you'd like to help, see Help:Copyright tags or comment.

Outlanders by Clark Ashton Smith

By desert-deepened wells and chasmed ways,

And noon-high passes of the crumbling nome

Where the fell sphinx and martichoras roam;

Over black mountains lit by meteor-blaze,

Through darkness ending not in solar days,

Beauty, the centauress, has brought us home

To shores where chaos climbs in starry foam,

And the white horses of Polaris graze.

We gather, upon those gulfward beaches rolled,

Driftage of worlds not shown by any chart;

And pluck the fabled moly from wild scaurs:

Though these are scorned by human wharf and mart—

And scorned alike the red, primeval gold

For which we fight the griffins in strange wars.