реально, это одно из редких произведений, которые меня просто "штырятЪ"

Recompence

I have not heard lutes beckon me, nor blazen bugles call,
But once in a dim of a haunted lea I heard the silence fall.
I have not heard the regal drum, nor seen the flags unfurled,
But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world.

I have not seen the horsemen fall before the hurtling ghost,
But I have paced a silent hall where each step wake a ghost.
I have not kissed the tiger-feet of a strange-eyed golden god,
But I have walked a city's street where no man else had trod.

I have not raised the canopies that shelter revelling kings,
But I have fled from crimson eyes and black unearthly wings.
I have not knelt ouitside the door to kiss the palid queen,
But I have seen a ghostly shore that no man else has seen.

I have not seen the standart sweep from keep and castle wall,
But I have seen a woman leep from a dragon's crimson stall,
And I have heard strange surges boom that no man else heard before,
And seen a strange black city loom on a mystic night-black shore.

And I have felt a sudden blow of nameless wing's cold breath,
And watched the grisly pilgrims go that walk the roads of Death,
And I have seen black valley's gape, abbyses in the gloom,
And I have fought the deathless Ape that guards the Doors of Doom.

I have not seen the face of Pan, nor mocked the Dryad's haste,
But I have trailed a dark-eyed man across a windy waste.
I have not died as a men may die, nor sin as man have sinned,
But I have reached a misty sky apon the granite wind.

                                                                                                                  Robert Hovard

ЗЫ - когда я сдавал гос по всемирной литературе, совершенно случайно в моей папке завалялся листок с этим стихотворением... и с его помощью я вытянул твёрдую четвёрку (у нас - 8 баллов из 10) за экзамен... притом, что сам декан эту оценку мне вклепал, а с деканом у меня всегда были нелады...