My brain is the haunt of a naked Curiosity that has lured my soul across the purple bars of sense, beyond the last outpost of Reason, where I know not if I be I. Lights quicken and wane, glooms thicken around me and break into lean and hurrying Shapes—supraterrestrial phantoms, spectral norms of this world and vague patterns of things not yet become. Forest of branching selves, my various masks, my serio-comic souls, my antique, half-remembered egos: are ye that? And here I now stand peering tensely curious into the crater of Eternity, seeking out Demiurge there in the depths, When the truth flashes on me: I am but fume, spew, from that Depth— I and thee, all, but fantastic smoke-shapes flitting above the crater of Eternity; And Demiurge, muttering, retreating, advancing there in the Depths, is but the shadow of Me the Curious One.
Publication History
The Shadow-Eater [1915/17 and 1923]
1923 Edition Text Changes
- sense, beyond > sense, ⁋ Beyond
- Shapes—supraterrestrial > Shapes— ⁋ Supraterrestrial
- serio-comic souls, my antique > serio-comic souls, ⁋ My antique
- Eternity, seeking > Eternity, ⁋ Seeking
- shadow of Me > shadow of ⁋ Me