Pantagruelian Catacombs

The immortal vampire "Sempiternus", born a Roman Legionnaire, who lives in Victorian Europe.

I was born centuries ago in Hispania,

Rais'd by the wheat fields of Corduba, 

A Roman legionaire within Caledonia,

And son of Marcus Acacius of Baetica.

My life was fore'er chang'd one day,

When I died and became an immortal,

With the fond days of light so far away,

Breathing the aphotic night of a mortal.

In the old cities of Europe I had din'd,

With the aristocrats and monarchies,

And I had become infamous and win'd,

With the autocrats of rising anarchies.

My caprices began with the latifundia,

And I fancied the trove of the castles,

From lands of Britannia onto Lusitania,

Witnessing roaring cannons of battles.

Evolution brought the new inventions,

Rapid trains and audible phonographs,

And castles became affluent mansions, 

As paintings became vivid photographs.

I have outliv'd Nero, Trajan and Napoleon, 

For I am primordial as the winds of aeons,

And met geniuses as an argute chameleon,

Riding upon the armadas of stately galleons,

Illecebrous women bow'd to my reverence,

And vagaries of epithymy came and went,

With orphic dalliance and zetetic deference,

As I roam streets leaving my luculent scent.

Search within the omphalos of Hades tellurian,

Behind the delitescent chambres of the damn'd,

In Pantagruelian catacombs horrid and draconian,

Where you find me, when the doors have slamm'd.

I am Sempiternus...