terrac'd landscape piece

''three times randolph carter dreamed of the marvelous city, and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it. all golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with walls, temples, colonnades and arched bridges of veined marble, silver-basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom-laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows; while on steep northward slopes climbed tiers of red roofs and old peaked gables harbouring little lanes of grassy cobbles...

''he knew that for him its meaning must once have been supreme; though in what cycle or incarnation he had known it, or whether in dream or in waking, he could not tell. vaguely it called up glimpses of a far forgotten first youth, when wonder and pleasure lay in all the mystery of days, and dawn and dusk alike strode forth prophetic to the eager sound of lutes and song, unclosing fiery gates toward further and surprising marvels.

''but each night as he stood on that high marble terrace with the curious urns and carven rails and looked over that hushed sunset city of beauty and unearthly immanence he felt the bondage of dreams tyrannous gods; for in no wise could he leave that lofty spot, or descend the wide marmoreal flights flung endlessly down to where those streets of elder witchery lay outspread and beckoning.

''at length, sick with longing for those glittering sunset streets and cryptical hill lanes among ancient tiled roofs, nor able sleeping or waking to drive them from his mind, carter resolved to go with bold entreaty whither no man had gone before, and dare the icy deserts through the dark to where unknown kadath, veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars, holds secret and nocturnal the onyx castle of the great ones.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.