Horrendous sore throat and incessant homework aside, today has been a nicely restful day. It's been raining since sometime in the night, about which I couldn't be happier. I adore rainy days, don't you?--they're calming and a little wistful all at once.
At any rate, if my vaguely folkloric memory fails me not, May Day is traditionally celebrated with songs and dancing. We have all the dancing we could wish for here in our ballroom, do we not?--so today seemed fitting for the first post of one of my gothic-and-lolita-friendly songs. Specifically, the one that solidified the midnight ballroom as the usual haunt (so to speak) of the shadowy, fay creatures from my stories. By the by, you may recall that I spoke of poems rather than songs in the first post. The truth is that they are actually songs, but with such a heavy emphasis on lyrics as well as melody that I use the terms interchangeably.
This particular song-poem is essentially the first of those written about (or by) my characters, and so it requires a very brief explanation. You see, my main character, a quirky, wistful romantigoth girl named Taralyn, is herself a songwriter, and wrote this song about a dream that came to her one night. It was quite a fancifully spooky dream, as you will see--worthy of any goth girl's subconscious imagination. What Taralyn didn't realize is that she had dreamed about a real person, amidst echoes of a long ago fairytale. You'll have to find out the rest for yourselves, dear guests.
Nonetheless, shortly after dreaming her dream and writing her song, Taralyn met Lorcan, a fellow gothic poet (and in future posts, you will be hearing quite a bit from his own quill.) She never guessed--at least, not at first--that Lorcan was born very much a part of that dark fantasia that she yearned after, or that he had forsaken it long ago, dooming himself to wander as an outcast.
Now, was that quite melancholy and sentimental enough for you, dear listeners to this tale? If I have in fact intrigued you, by all means, read on. My wonderfully clever guests will recognize this song as the one from which I took the quote underneath "Herself," over to your right there.
Haunted Dream
by Taralyn Brennan
I dreamt...a fantasy in shadow--
Crimson darkness, crystal chandelier:
Alone he's waiting at the window--
A silhouette of midnight glimm'ring clear...
They were dancing
In a ballroom cast from Time...
Song entrancing--
Nightingale and evening's chime!
Arm in arm, ghostly charm:
Cold and pale and far from harm...
My heart forgot the sunshine--
No dream for dawn remains:
One kiss--enchanted ice-wine
Has crystallized my veins.
Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--
Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!
My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,
On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...
From this dream I know I cannot wake--
You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.
My heart...grew hushed like a cathedral--
It beat as soft as falling snow.
The incense burned—my rose-red candle:
Lovelorn moth, imperiled long ago...
We were dancing--
The shadow-prince (my silhouette):
Gaze entrancing--
And mortal sunrise I forget.
His raven dove looked above,
Caught by hunger and by love...
The dusk-lit eyes glowed crimson--
He gently kissed the prey:
Each vein a scarlet ribbon,
He drank my heart away.
Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--
Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!
My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,
On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...
From this dream I know I cannot wake--
You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.
Silver fades in a gloaming sky--
Her sweet, elusive lullaby--
Rainstorm-fragrant wind, a gravestone flower:
Melancholy reverie in grey.
Black the branches—tattered lace--
Pretty crystal mirror hides my face:
He changed me in the darkness of his tower,
And held me close in starlit mercy fae.
I am dancing
On wings that glitter in the dark!
Ice entrancing--
To living Dawn I'll never hark...
(My prince, come greet the moon's white arc.)
Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--
Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!
My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,
On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...
From this dream I know I cannot wake--
You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.
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