Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror

Echoes of the fantasies of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard resonate through the poems that make up this retrospective collection of macabre verse. Working mostly in basic rhyming quadrameter and pentameter and often in traditional sonnet forms, Tierney (The Drums of Chaos) ably evokes the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos ("Midsummer Nightmare") and the muscular heroics of Conan the Barbarian and his offshoots (the 12-poem cycle grouped as "The Doom of Hyboria"). The mood of the poems ranges from morbid satire of "Autumn Chill," a dramatic monologue delivered by a rustic with unwholesome occult knowledge, to the cosmic terror of "The Sad and Spooky Time." The oldest poem, "Visions of Golconda" (1959), is the most atmospheric, a tour-de-force of descriptive imagery that calls to mind the poetic fancies of Poe, and that is one of several homages to Tierney's influences, among them Tolkien, Baudelaire, and Robert W. Chambers. Though some ephemeral doggerel is interspersed with the more serious efforts, fans of modern fantastic verse will find much to savor. (July)