REH Word of the Week: cresset
Monday, October 19, 2009
posted by Barbara Barrett
cresset
noun
1. an iron vessel or basket used for holding an illuminant (oil) and mounted as a torch or suspended as a lantern
[origin: 14th century; Middle English from Anglo-French creisse, gresse, grease]
HOWARD’S USAGE:
Darkness falls on Mecca’s walls,
The cressets glimmer in the gloom;
Along the cornices and groins
The scorpion weaves his trail of doom.
[from "Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls"; to read the complete poem, see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 226 and Shadows of Dreams, p. 26]
