longsuffering - patient endurance of provocation or trial
decennia - ten years
matter - to arrange the subject-matter of
wither - to lose vigour or freshness, to languish, decline, pine away, fade.
Sylvester - St. Sylvester's day, Dec. 31
whimsicality* - oddity, fantasticalness
murmurant* - murmuring (obs.)
no more - not any more; no further
know - knowledge
Moloch* - the name of a Canaanite idol, to whom children were sacrificed as burnt-offerings.
slip - a strip, a narrow piece or stretch, of land, ground, etc.
rived - riven, rent, torn apart; Also fig. right
chill - cold
spatch - to slay, kill; aphetic form of dispatch
furlong - the present statute furlong is 220 yards, and is equal to the eighth part of a statute mile.
slick - first-class, excellent
slapstick - knockabout comedy or humour, farce, horseplay
record - a performance or occurrence remarkable among, or going beyond, others of the same kind; spec. the best recorded achievement in any competitive sport.
farfetched - Of an argument, notion, simile, etc.: Studiously sought out, not easily or naturally introduced.
in troth - truly, verily, indeed
docile - apt to be taught, ready and willing to receive instruction, teachable.
bouncing - that bounces: in various senses of the verb relating alike to loudness, brag, and vigorous or ungainly movement.
contest - to contend in rivalry, vie, compete (with)
phoenix* - a mythical bird, of gorgeous plumage, fabled to be the only one of its kind, and to live five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, after which it burnt itself to ashes on a funeral pile of aromatic twigs ignited by the sun and fanned by its own wings, but only to emerge from its ashes with renewed youth, to live through another cycle of years.
Erebus* - the proper name of 'a place of darkness, between Earth and Hades' Arabia
smother - dense, suffocating, or stifling smoke, such as is produced by combustion without flame.
to shoot up - to assail (a person, thing) by shooting
eftsoon - Indicating sequence or transition in discourse: Again, moreover, likewise; afterwards, soon afterwards.
spirt - to sprout or germinate; to squirt
sunward - toward the sun
rampant* - unchecked, unrestrained, aggressive, etc.
flambe - a torch
sombre - depressingly dark, dusky, or obscure
opacity - the quality or condition of being impervious to light; darkness, dimness, obscurity.
gloom - an indefinite degree of darkness or obscurity, the result of night, deep shadow, etc.
footsore - having sore or tender feet
win out - to come out successfully, succeed in attaining one's end
whereon - on which
amain - with all one's might, at full speed; vehemently, violently amen