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Post by deuce on Oct 14, 2017 0:30:52 GMT -5
There is so much within this poem to enjoy and mysteries to unravel. This is the "standard" version. There is also an interesting alternate version which ties SK into Devonshire a bit more. I'll post it some other time. BTW, this poem is not in any way a "gift". I cannot "give" what is not mine. I merely pass it along to my fellow REH fans.  Solomon Kane’s Homecoming
The white gulls wheeled above the cliffs, the air was slashed with foam,
The long tides moaned along the strand when Solomon Kane came home.
He walked in silence strange and dazed through the little Devon town,
His gaze, like a ghost’s come back to life, roamed up the streets and down.
The people followed wonderingly to mark his spectral stare,
And in the tavern silently they thronged about him there.
He heard as a man hears in a dream the worn old rafters creak,
And Solomon lifted his drinking-jack and spoke as a ghost might speak:
“There sat Sir Richard Grenville once; in smoke and flame he passed.
“And we were one to fifty-three, but we gave them blast for blast.
“From crimson dawn to crimson dawn, we held the Dons at bay.
“The dead lay littered on our decks, our masts were shot away.
“We beat them back with broken blades, till crimson ran the tide;
“Death thundered in the cannon smoke when Richard Grenville died.
“We should have blown her hull apart and sunk beneath the Main.”
The people saw upon his wrist the scars of the racks of Spain.
“Where is Bess?” said Solomon Kane.“Woe that I caused her tears.”
“In the quiet churchyard by the sea she has slept these seven years.”
The sea-wind moaned at the window-pane, and Solomon bowed his head.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and the fairest fade,” he said.
His eyes were mystical deep pools that drowned unearthly things,
And Solomon lifted up his head and spoke of his wanderings.
“Mine eyes have looked on sorcery in dark and naked lands,
“Horror born of the jungle gloom and death on the pathless sands.
“And I have known a deathless queen in a city old as Death,
“Where towering pyramids of skulls her glory witnesseth.
“Her kiss was like an adder’s fang, with the sweetness Lilith had,
“And her red-eyed vassals howled for blood in that City of the Mad.
“And I have slain a vampire shape that sucked a black king white,
“And I have roamed through grisly hills where dead men walked at night.
“And I have seen heads fall like fruit in a slaver’s barracoon,
“And I have seen winged demons fly all naked in the moon.
“My feet are weary of wandering and age comes on apace;
“I fain would dwell in Devon now, forever in my place.”
The howling of the ocean pack came whistling down the gale,
And Solomon Kane threw up his head like a hound that sniffs the trail.
A-down the wind like a running pack the hounds of the ocean bayed,
And Solomon Kane rose up again and girt his Spanish blade.
In his strange cold eyes a vagrant gleam grew wayward and blind and bright,
And Solomon put the people by and went into the night.
A wild moon rode the wild white clouds, the waves in white crests flowed,
When Solomon Kane went forth again and no man knew his road.
They glimpsed him etched against the moon, where clouds on hilltop thinned;
They heard an eery echoed call that whistled down the wind.
~ REH ~ |
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Post by emerald on Oct 14, 2017 10:02:40 GMT -5
There is so much within this poem to enjoy and mysteries to unravel. This is the "standard" version. There is also an interesting alternate version which ties SK into Devonshire a bit more. I'll post it some other time. BTW, this poem is not in any way a "gift". I cannot "give" what is not mine. I merely pass it along to my fellow REH fans. Solomon Kane’s Homecoming
The white gulls wheeled above the cliffs, the air was slashed with foam,
The long tides moaned along the strand when Solomon Kane came home.
He walked in silence strange and dazed through the little Devon town,
His gaze, like a ghost’s come back to life, roamed up the streets and down.
The people followed wonderingly to mark his spectral stare,
And in the tavern silently they thronged about him there.
He heard as a man hears in a dream the worn old rafters creak,
And Solomon lifted his drinking-jack and spoke as a ghost might speak:
“There sat Sir Richard Grenville once; in smoke and flame he passed.
“And we were one to fifty-three, but we gave them blast for blast.
“From crimson dawn to crimson dawn, we held the Dons at bay.
“The dead lay littered on our decks, our masts were shot away.
“We beat them back with broken blades, till crimson ran the tide;
“Death thundered in the cannon smoke when Richard Grenville died.
“We should have blown her hull apart and sunk beneath the Main.”
The people saw upon his wrist the scars of the racks of Spain.
“Where is Bess?” said Solomon Kane.“Woe that I caused her tears.”
“In the quiet churchyard by the sea she has slept these seven years.”
The sea-wind moaned at the window-pane, and Solomon bowed his head.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and the fairest fade,” he said.
His eyes were mystical deep pools that drowned unearthly things,
And Solomon lifted up his head and spoke of his wanderings.
“Mine eyes have looked on sorcery in dark and naked lands,
“Horror born of the jungle gloom and death on the pathless sands.
“And I have known a deathless queen in a city old as Death,
“Where towering pyramids of skulls her glory witnesseth.
“Her kiss was like an adder’s fang, with the sweetness Lilith had,
“And her red-eyed vassals howled for blood in that City of the Mad.
“And I have slain a vampire shape that sucked a black king white,
“And I have roamed through grisly hills where dead men walked at night.
“And I have seen heads fall like fruit in a slaver’s barracoon,
“And I have seen winged demons fly all naked in the moon.
“My feet are weary of wandering and age comes on apace;
“I fain would dwell in Devon now, forever in my place.”
The howling of the ocean pack came whistling down the gale,
And Solomon Kane threw up his head like a hound that sniffs the trail.
A-down the wind like a running pack the hounds of the ocean bayed,
And Solomon Kane rose up again and girt his Spanish blade.
In his strange cold eyes a vagrant gleam grew wayward and blind and bright,
And Solomon put the people by and went into the night.
A wild moon rode the wild white clouds, the waves in white crests flowed,
When Solomon Kane went forth again and no man knew his road.
They glimpsed him etched against the moon, where clouds on hilltop thinned;
They heard an eery echoed call that whistled down the wind.
~ REH ~I haven't read Solomon Kane's Homecoming in years, so I thought I might read it aloud to myself on this quiet morning. To my surprise this proved almost impossible as I kept choking up at the last couple stanzas. Part of this is me, of course, I've known this poem for more than forty years so it has personal resonance, but it's primarily because REH was a superb and tragically underrated poet. |
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Oct 15, 2017 6:23:19 GMT -5
This poem was pure melancholic beauty.The poem says that Kane wanders like a ghost with his spectral stare and i feel that he isn't strongly attached to Devon and his homecoming was a mixed bag as people look at him wonderingly. Bess IMO is Kane's girlfriend/fiance or possibly his sister? waiting for her lover/brother who abandoned her due to wanderlust and never returned. I personally think it is sister since Kane IMO never was a romantic man and i think he was fairly old in the yarns, well past love and all that.
As for the ending, personally i think Solomon Kane died in what was possibly his last adventure. I've always felt he was a character who longed for death unlike Conan or Kull.Until i read Solomon Kane, i never really cared for Howard's poems. Black Stain and Sir Richard Grenville are also great and give backstory on our Puritan avenger.I am re-read Cimmeria and King and the Oak now.
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Post by keith on Oct 15, 2017 9:31:35 GMT -5
buntyObarbarian, I like your comment. And fully agree about the poem's pure melancholic beauty. I have, as all Solomon Kane's fans do, my opinions about who Bess was. My opinion is that she was not his sister (and certainly not Queen Elizabeth I, as some have suggested) but a girl close to his own age who knew him when he was very young and loved him. I've suggested in my posts for "REH Two Gun Raconteur" that she was a servant of the Taferal family, and like Kane was fond of little Marilyn Taferal, the girl he rescues in "The Moon of Skulls". My take is that their relationship was romantic and youthful and happened before Kane's paranoid, obsessive drives fully kicked in. Bess kept hoping, especially when Solomon returned home now and then, but she realized at last that it just wasn't going to happen.
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Oct 15, 2017 12:32:58 GMT -5
buntyObarbarian, I like your comment. And fully agree about the poem's pure melancholic beauty. I have, as all Solomon Kane's fans do, my opinions about who Bess was. My opinion is that she was not his sister (and certainly not Queen Elizabeth I, as some have suggested) but a girl close to his own age who knew him when he was very young and loved him. I've suggested in my posts for "REH Two Gun Raconteur" that she was a servant of the Taferal family, and like Kane was fond of little Marilyn Taferal, the girl he rescues in "The Moon of Skulls". My take is that their relationship was romantic and youthful and happened before Kane's paranoid, obsessive drives fully kicked in. Bess kept hoping, especially when Solomon returned home now and then, but she realized at last that it just wasn't going to happen. Hey Keith, I like your connection with Bess as a maid with the Taferal family (can't believe i forgot about them) as for the relationship between Bess and Kane, i think we should look at REH and Solomon Kane's character. I think it's safe to assume that the characters reflect some part of Howard or indicate something, concept or topic which he was interested at the time. Kane is a man of obsession,likewise REH IMO was very interested into something possibly race,identity etc. I get this from the setting of his stories in Africa,biblical name of the character and Wings in the Night,the last yarn he wrote has strong racial connotations to it. Also he wrote these stories before Conan yes? I believe he wasn't dating any woman at that time. It is because of these 2 reasons IMO can't find romantic angle between Kane and Bess.He is the kind of author who has strong sources like books,people etc which he draws inspiration from. Of course what i said till now is tinfoil BS. Bess and Kane can definitely be lovers.Kane has a strong sense of justice, maybe some rich doucheballons were trying to take advantage of Bess(cos she's a maid) and Kane kicked their ass or something along those lines. |
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Post by deuce on Oct 16, 2017 12:11:25 GMT -5
I haven't read Solomon Kane's Homecoming in years, so I thought I might read it aloud to myself on this quiet morning. To my surprise this proved almost impossible as I kept choking up at the last couple stanzas. Part of this is me, of course, I've known this poem for more than forty years so it has personal resonance, but it's primarily because REH was a superb and tragically underrated poet. Totally agree. Of course, REH's poetry was mostly in the romantic/traditionalist school and that style of poetry was in the process of being deplatformed and delegitimized by the literati even as he typed his immortal verse. Modern/postmodern "poetry" has very little room for poems like "Solomon Kane's Homecoming." |
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Post by deuce on Oct 19, 2017 8:44:15 GMT -5
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Post by themirrorthief on Oct 22, 2017 23:56:33 GMT -5
I like the alternate version best but both rock
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Post by Von K on Oct 23, 2017 19:59:47 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Dec 30, 2017 14:38:53 GMT -5
Stephen Fabian's "Solomon Kane's Homecoming"...  |
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Post by robp on Dec 31, 2017 6:50:49 GMT -5
I'm just sorting some offers on my site for NY, so just for you guys here's a download of SKH, read by John Prusinski with backing done by myself. You have to go through checkout, but the MP3 download is free Enjoy and Happy New Year! Solomon Kane's Homecoming |
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2018 15:33:00 GMT -5
Here's the SSOC adaptation of Solomon Kane's Homecoming by Roy Thomas, Virgilio Redondo and Rudy Nebres.    |
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2018 15:35:39 GMT -5
Solomon Kane's Homecoming
by Roy Thomas, Virgilio Redondo and Rudy Nebres (SSOC 20), part 2.  
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2018 15:38:04 GMT -5
Solomon Kane's Homecoming by Roy Thomas, Virgilio Redondo and Rudy Nebres (SSOC 20), conclusion.  
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2018 13:39:49 GMT -5
Here's another adaptation of Solomon Kane’s Homecoming from issue 162 of SSOC. Adapted & Pencilled by Steve Carr, inked by Al Williamson.    |
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