My Ruthless hands still clutch at life-
Still like a shoreless sea
My soul beats on in rage and strife.
You may not shackle me.
My leopard eyes are still untamed,
they hold a darksome light-
A fierce and brooding gleam unnamed
that pierced the primeval night.
Rear mighty temples to your god-
I lurk where shadows sway,
Till, when your drowsy guards shall not,
To leap and rend and slay
For I would hurl your cities down
And I would break your shrines
And give the site of every town
To thistles and to vines.
Higher the walls of Nineveh
And prouder Babel's spires-
I bellowed from the desert way-
They crumbled in my fires.
For all the works of cultured man
Must fare and fade and fall
I am the Dark Barbarian
That towers over all.