Before H.P. Lovecraft and Marion Zimmer Bradley' Darkover...



...there was Robert W. Chambers, and his The King in Yellow, which has been driving men mad and influencing writers for over a century. I was always partial to this piece...

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.

— Cassilda's Song" in The King in Yellow Act 1, Scene 2