Dominium in Excelsis

by Clark Ashton Smith


	Exalt thyself: be more than man,
	Be saint or be magician,
	And where the burning Sword awaits
	Defy the old seraphic ban.

	Thy will, that climbs from dark estates,
	Shall divinize the godless fates,
	This fiery ecstasy of dream
	Melt down the grim, forbidden gates

	That open into spheres extreme
	Beyond the starry-bubbled stream-
	Beyond Capella, past Altair-
	Where amaranthine gardens gleam.

	Thy feet shall tread the Scorpion's lair,
	Thy hands shall catch the comet's hair;
	Or over Endor thou shalt ride
	Unfrighted on the tamed Nightmare.

	And thence go down where ghosts have died
	And famished ghouls and vampires glide;
	Or tarry in years behind the tomb;
	Or in the multiple futures bide.

	Thou shalt respire the flame and fume
	Of Beltis' altars drowned in gloom
	Under her sharded fanes; or share
	The fabled Atlantean doom,

	And rise unharmed to light and air
	Out of old death, once more to death
	With antinomian deed and thought
	The planet of thy slain despair-

	Till stones and atoms, shadow-wrought,
	Dissolving shall return to naught,
	Or into fairer shapes be brought.