Note: Sometimes designated as version 1 of the 3 Howard poems with this name. This poem has four parts of 24, 12, 16, and 20 lines. The last 4 lines of the second part are virtually identical to the first 4 lines of Howard's poem "The Song of Horsa's Galley"; the last 4 lines of the poem are virtually identical to the first 4 lines of Howard's poem "The Road to Hell". Lines 1-3, 5-8, 13-16 and 9-12 are identical to lines 9-12, 29-32, 45-48 and 49-52, respectively, of version 2 ("The sin and jest of the times am I..."). First published in The Howard Collector # 7, Winter 1965. Lines 21-24 appeared in a Howard letter to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. March 1928 ("Salaam: / Glad you're writing these days..."). These lines are part of version 3 of Howard's poems of this name. Parts of this poem appear in The Dark Barbarian, ed. Don Herron (lines 9-12 on p. 40); The Book of Madness: Whispers Within, Chaos Without by Bill Bridges, Steven Brown, Sam Inabinet, Kathleen Ryan & Phil Brucato (lines 69-72, p. 21); and Riverside Quarterly, June 1966. ed. Leland Sapiro (lines 5-20).