By Paul Herman *

Robert E. Howard wrote poetry. He wrote it first in life, last in life, and throughout life. Howard completed around 300 stories for commercial sale and worked on 300 more. But he wrote over 700 poems, virtually none of them meant for commercial markets. His first publication outside of school was his poem “The Sea”, published in a local paper. His famous “All fled, all done…” couplet, borrowed from Viola Garvin, was allegedly the last words he typed. And in between, poetry gushed from him.

“I know his [REH’s] stories will be read and forgotten, but I do know also that if his poems were in book form . . . they would live on and on and not be forgotten. Somebody would be reading them for many years to come.”
― Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, father of REH

Howard poured himself into his poetry, undisguised. What amazed him, what drew him, what scared him, what sickened him. He wasn’t worried about what we the eventual readers would think of him as an author. And perhaps this is true of any real poet, the fearlessness of saying what one really wants to say.

This three-volume set, The Collected Poems of Robert E. Howard includes all of Howard’s poetry that has been found, including all the earlier draft versions, where such exist. This is indeed the Ultimate collection of Robert E. Howard’s poetry.

This is the “Ultimate Edition” which just means that it’s printed on demand. Each volume is printed in hardback with a dust jacket.  The cover design and artwork are by Mark Wheatley. The first edition can be seen here.

* Text edited and shortened by webmaster.

With regard to editing the texts, I have chosen first and foremost to go back to what REH actually wrote. Poetry by its very nature involves an author using grammar, layout, and punctuation differently than would be appropriate in a prose work. REH certainly was not shy about being creative in such details. Some may consider such things as lack of proper punctuation unacceptable, but it was REH’s work and his choice. Therefore I have attempted, as much as possible, to restore all the texts to his original words and forms.

Multiple drafts exist of some poems. Sometimes there is little difference between drafts, sometimes significant differences. In the case of multiple drafts, I have included either notes regarding, or the complete text of, the earlier drafts, depending on how different they are.

Typically we do not have a copy of the “final form” of a poem that REH sent off to a magazine, like Weird Tales. Thus, we really have no idea if any differences that show up between the published version and a draft typescript version were created by REH (in a later draft for which no copy is available in the known typescripts) or by the editors. In instances where there are significant differences, we have included both versions.
And finally, on occasion, there is more than one version of a poem, with it not being evident which came before the other. That is, which is the more “final” of the two. In those cases, I have again just picked one and referred to the “alternate” version in either the footnotes or included it, if significantly different. One will also occasionally encounter a “variant” version, a poem that is significantly similar to another, but with a completely different title, and likely meant to be a different poem, one used as raw material for the other.

With regard to the arrangement of the works in this collection, REH had poetry that he thought was good enough and ready to publish. He also had what appeared to be works in progress, and silly things he just did in letters to friends. Because I wanted to let REH set out what he thought was his best, and reserve the silly stuff for those readers that really want to see it, I have decided to sort the works broadly into six sections:

• Finished and Professional
• Titled Drafts
• Untitled Drafts
• No Known Drafts
• Youthful Writings
• Poetry for Friends

It is recognized that some works may fit in multiple sections, and I have made choices as best I think.
Sequentially, starting with the “Titled Drafts” section in Volume One, each section is broken down into six subsections:

• Introductory Sampling (some of the best in a section)
• Seeking Adventure and Freedom
• Fantastical
• Historical and Observational
• Humor
• Naughty
• Darker Moods

Again, some poems could fit in multiple subsections, and I have made decisions as I think best.
The recently gained access to the entire Glenn Lord Collection of typescripts added several poems, as well as lots of early and alternate drafts. This influx of material (along with the addition of multiple indices) has caused the complete collection to grow larger than is convenient for a single volume.
Accordingly, I have broken Collected Poetry into three volumes, comprising the six categories listed above:

• Volume One: Finished and Professional; Titled Drafts
• Volume Two: Untitled Drafts; No Known Drafts; Youthful Writings
• Volume Three: Poetry for Friends

In selecting which section to place poems, the first general rule is, any poetry in letters goes into Poetry for Friends, and all works either handwritten or typed on REH’s first typewriter, go into Youthful Writings. After those were sorted, then the remaining poetry was sorted as needed into Finished and Professional, Titled Drafts, Untitled Drafts, and No Known Draft.

If there is more than one draft, all drafts of a poem are presented together one after the other. In each instance I have either included all the drafts together, or at least added notes on earlier drafts, if the differences are few. I have used the most “final” version to help decide into which section of the collection the bundle of drafts will appear. So for instance, if for a particular poem there is a final draft, an earlier titled draft, and an untitled draft, all three will appear together in Finished and Professional. If the best version is merely titled but not in final form, then the Titled Drafts section gets the set. If only untitled drafts are known, then they will appear in the Untitled Drafts section. And finally, for those without drafts, they are placed in the No Known Draft Section. Published versions which are significantly different from any draft have generally been included after the known drafts.

Also included at the back of each volume is a full alphabetical list of all poems with volume and page number, alternate title list, first line index, and sources used for texts and titles.

Finally, with regard to titles, it is unfortunate that the typescripts we have access to include only about 300 titles for the 700+ poems. Some might prefer to have all these poems with no provable title to just be called “Untitled”, or just use the first line, but that tends to make it difficult to discuss the poems with others, or to reference. A short simple title for each is desirable, and that appears to be the thought of virtually all previous editors who published the vast majority of these poems. And it may be that in some instances, the first published title actually was a title REH meant for that work, who knows.

In general, I have used the title provided by REH in a typescript, if one is available. Those are easy. If a work was published during REH’s lifetime, or just after, I’ll presume the title came from REH, and use that title (though of course there is no real proof that that is true). Everything else, and there is a lot of everything else, is really a question. For most of this remaining verse, I have simply used whatever title the work was published with previously, for simplicity and continuity, recognizing the high likelihood that there is not, and never was, a titled draft, and that the title was attached by whomever. Much of the more recently discovered poetry that is untitled is here titled with the first line, or a portion of the first line. In a very few instances, I have found the previous title (or lack thereof) a real problem, and have added a title of my own creation. I have tried to keep these to a minimum. The source list at the end of this volume will include both the source of the text used, as well as the source of the title, if known, for those interested in such details.

It is hoped that all this minutiae and detail does not detract from the entire point of this three volume set: to provide all of REH’s poetic works, those brilliant and those not quite so, for the reader’s enjoyment and thoughtful perusement.

• ix • Introduction: The History and Mystery of the Publishing of the Poetry of Robert E. Howard, by Paul Herman
• xix • Foreword by Paul Herman
• xxiii • Acknowledgements

Introductory Sampling

7	The Return of Sir Richard Grenville
9	Miser’s Gold
10	The Sand-Hills’ Crest
12	The One Black Stain
14	The One Black Stain (the second draft)
16	The One Black Stain (the first draft)
19	Drowned
19	Drowned (an alternate version)
20	Little Brown Man of Nippon
22	A Song of the Race
25	The Ballad of Buckshot Roberts
27	In the Ring
29	Destiny (1)

Seeking Adventure and Freedom

33	The Call of the Sea
34	The Call of Adventure (incomplete)
35	A Dying Pirate Speaks of Treasure
37	The Winds That Walk the World
39	Revolt Pagan
40	Old Memories of Adventure
41	I’m More Than a Man
42	Freedom

Fantastical

45	The Symbol
46	The Ghost Ocean
47	Dance Macabre
48	Shadows from Yesterday
49	Cornish Jack
51	Mad Meg Gill
53	Ju-Ju Doom
54	All Hallows Eve
55	All Hallows Eve (an earlier draft)
56	The Phantoms Gather
57	Mystic Lore
58	Counterspells
59	Prince and Beggar
60	Shadow Thing
61	The Worshippers
62	When the Gods Were Kings
63	The Master-Drum
64	Death’s Black Riders (story heading)
65	The Bell of Morni
66	The Shadow of the Beast (story heading)
67	As I Rode Down to Lincoln Town
68	Egypt
69	Baal
71	Seven Kings
71	Seven Kings (an earlier draft)
72	The Drums of Pictdom
73	Abhorrent Gods

Historical and Observational

77	A Song of the Naked Lands
80	A Song of the Naked Lands (the first page of an earlier draft)
82	The Feud
83	Memories of Alfred
84	A Legend of Faring Town
85	The Road to Bliss
87	Alien
88	The Song of Horsa’s Galley
89	No Man’s Land
90	To Harry the Oliad Men
91	A Rhyme of Salem Town
93	Where are Your Knights, Donn Othna?
94	The Zulu Lord
95	Rattle of Drums
97	Lost Nisapur
98	Babylon
98	Babylon (an alternate version)
99	The Baron and the Wench
100	Silence Falls on Mecca’s Walls
101	Down the Ages
102	The Affair at the Tavern
105	The Chief of the Matabeles
108	No More the Serpent Prow
109	When the Glaciers Rumbled South
110	The Guise of Youth
111	The Cells of the Coliseum
112	Days of Glory
113	When Death Drops Her Veil
114	A Thousand Years Ago
115	The Drum
116	Roar, Silver Trumpets
117	The Winds of the Sea
118	The Night Winds
119	The Broken Walls of Babel
120	The Ballad of King Geraint
145	The Ages Stride on Golden Feet
146	The King of the Ages Comes
147	The Gods I Worshipped
148	Nocturne
149	Devon Oak
150	A Calling to Rome
151	Sea-Chant
152	De Ole River Ox
153	The Wind Blows
153	The Wind Blows (an alternate version)
154	Trail’s End
155	A Song of Bards
156	The Oaks
157	The Land of Mystery (story heading)
158	The Majestic Mary L.
159	Exhortation
160	Universe
161	Passing of the Elder Gods
162	The Desert
163	The Masque
164	Mahomet
165	The Actor
166	The King of Trade
167	For What Is a Maid to the Shout of Kings?
168	Fill Up My Goblet
169	Brazen Thewed Giant

Humor

173	Another Hymn of Hate
175	Code
176	A Pledge
177	The Phases of Life

Naughty

181	Prelude
182	Desire
183	Good Mistress Brown
184	The Harlot
185	Perspective

Darker Moods

189	Mine But to Serve
192	Never Beyond the Beast
193	The House of Gael
194	The Champ
195	Invective
196	Only a Shadow on the Grass
197	Little Bell of Brass
198	Harvest
199	The Ladder of Life
200	The Primal Urge
201	An Outworn Story
203	On with the Play
205	Time, the Victor

Introductory Sampling

211	Solomon Kane’s Homecoming
214	Solomon Kane’s Homecoming (an untitled alternate version)
217	Black Harps in the Hills
219	Black Harps in the Hills (an untitled, shorter version in a letter)
220	The Ghost Kings
221	Two Men
223	The Tale the Dead Slaver Told
224	The Tale the Dead Slaver Told (an alternate version)
225	Not Only in Death They Die

Seeking Adventure and Freedom

229	Viking’s Vision
231	Earth-Born
232	The Outgoing of Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer
233	To a Friend
234	Drake Sings of Yesterday
236	Untamed Avatars

Fantastical

239	The Song of the Gallows Tree
240	A Dull Sound as of Knocking
241	The Dweller in Dark Valley
242	Zukala’s Love Song
245	The Grey God Passes (chapter headings)
246	A Song of the Werewolf Folk
248	But the Hills Were Ancient Then
249	The Palace of Bast
250	The Doom Chant of Than-Kul
251	Baal-Pteor
252	Futility (1)
253	Astarte’s Idol Stands Alone
254	Memories (1)
255	Fragment
256	Summer Morn
257	The Cats of Anubis

Historical and Observational

261	The Song of the Last Briton
262	Who Shall Sing of Babylon?
264	Victory
266	A Dawn in Flanders
267	The Cry Everlasting
268	The Legacy of Tubal-Cain
269	A Song of the Don Cossacks
270	A Song of the Legions
272	Lunacy Chant
273	These Things are Gods
274	The Road to Rome
276	Cossack Dreams
277	War to the Blind
278	The Day Breaks over Simla
279	Custom
280	The Gates of Babylon
281	Dreams
282	Dreams of Nineveh
283	Drum Gods
284	The Gods of Easter Island
285	Sonora to Del Rio
286	The Sands of the Desert
287	Ships
288	Murky the Night
289	Artifice

Humor

293	The Weakling
294	Madam Goose’s Rhymes

Naughty

299	The Myth
300	Ecstasy
302	A Roman Lady
304	Strange Passion

Darker Moods

309	Which Will Scarcely Be Understood
311	Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die
312	Hope Empty of Meaning
313	A Sonnet of Good Cheer
314	The Wheel of Destiny
315	The Dust Dance (1)
318	The Dust Dance (2)
321	The Road to Freedom
322	To Moderns
324	Echoes from an Anvil
326	The Lies
237	Longfellow Revised
328	To Certain Orthodox Brethren
329	Man Am I
330	Empire
332	To a Kind Missionary Woiker
333	Let the Gods Die
334	As You Dance Upon the Air
335	The Rulers
337	Native Hell
338	Escape
339	Man the Master
340	The Songs of Defeat

Introductory Sampling

345	Fables for Little Folks
346	Farewell, Proud Munster

Seeking Adventure and Freedom

349	Illusion
350	The Sea
352	The Sword of Lal Singh
353	The Outcast
354	A High Land
355	The Pirate (1)
356	The Sword of Yar Ali Khan
357	The Trail of Gold
358	Senor Zorro
360	The Song of Yar Ali Khan
361	When Men Were Bold

Fantastical

365	Far in the Gloomy Northland
366	Am-ra the Ta-an
369	A Misty Sea
370	Modest Bill

Historical and Observational

377	The Bandit
378	The Rover
379	Over the Old Rio Grandey
380	Roundelay of the Roughneck
382	Private Magrath of the A.E.F.
384	Tarentella
386	Was I There?
387	Land of the Pioneer
388	The Plains of Gilban
389	Whence Cometh Erlik?
390	Zulu-Land
391	The Tartar Raid
392	The Stralsund
393	O the Brave Sea-Rover
394	Krakorum
395	Eric of Norway

Humor

403	The Kissing of Sal Snooboo
404	The Maiden of Kercheezer
405	My Sentiments, Set to Jazz
407	Parody on Description of June in “Sir Launfal”
408	Rules of Etiquette
410	When I Was in Africa
411	Edgar Guest
412	Bill Boozy Was a Pirate Bold
413	When Napoleon Down in Africa

Darker moods

417	Futility (2)
418	Mankind
420	Now and Then

Index

337	Primary Poetry Index
357	Alternate Title Index
363	First Line Index