51
To vampires which, by hinder claws suspended
In drowsy slumber, fruit-like forms protended,
Swathed in their olive pinions’ oil-skin blanket.
But now, in wild nocturnal rigs is wheeling
On dusk-brown bats’ wings o’er the army’s squealing.
Nay, those vicissitudes I’ll limn no more, or
That glorious march pourtray, that night of horror.
Now I would rather deal with what befel in
That banyan huge, headquarters of the villain
Called Vandragupta, when the mob plebeian
Fled to that fortress of the empyrean.
It Vindragupta greeted with complaisance:
“Shades of the mighty dead for this renaissance
Shall render thanks. Long have they marked in anger
How ’tis disdainéd by this modern Treason—
Their sacred watchword—hatred of the stranger:
But now has triumphed healthy simian reason
And soon shall beam the bright dawn long attended,
When from our backs this human trash we’ll scour,
There long by crazy vanity suspended,
And apedom pure reclaim the woodland bower.
Welcome first heralds of a better time,
Again o’er creepers on all fours we’ll climb,
Eat what the woods prepare so rich and fruity,
And naked creep in pristine classic beauty.
Off with all foreign manners! foreign varnish!
Again in all be Apery’s Laws applied
In my true apedom that no spot can tarnish,
You have a flawless mirror for your guide,
Then in pure philosimianism’s glory, ah!
Purge your whole essence from all human scoria.”
Under his guidance on the following day,
