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This post is a bit unusual, but a fragment of a poem is stuck in my head. I read it many years ago, and cannot remember the title or the author. I am thinking it was in a college literary magazine; if so, I doubt anyone can help me. But here goes. As I said, I only remember a fragment - the beginning and the ending.

"It had been old when Babylon was new,

(Missing lines)

"We cleared a path, but raced in mad retreat,
When from below we heard those clumping feet."

Anyone have any ideas????

Did a little more digging and found the answer myself. The poem is "The Dweller" by H. P. Lovecraft, and is one canto (?) of his "Fungi from Yuggoth." It is reproduced here:

"The Dweller"

It had been old when Babylon was new;
None knows how long it slept beneath that mound,
Where in the end our questing shovels found
Its granite blocks and brought it back to view.
There were vast pavements and foundation-walls,
And crumbling slabs and statues, carved to shew
Fantastic beings of some long ago
Past anything the world of man recalls.

And then we saw those stone steps leading down
Through a choked gate of graven dolomite
To some black haven of eternal night
Where elder signs and primal secrets frown.
We cleared a path—but raced in mad retreat
When from below we heard those clumping feet.