Astrophobos by H. P. LovecraftAstrophobos
by H. P. Lovecraft
Written 1918? 
Published July 1918 in The United Amateur 
In the Midnight heaven's burning 
Through the ethereal deeps afar 
Once I watch'd with restless yearning 
An alluring aureate star; 
Ev'ry eve aloft returning 
Gleaming nigh the Arctic Car. 
Mystic waves of beauty blended 
With the gorgeous golden rays 
Phantasies of bliss descended 
In a myrrh'd Elysian haze. 
In the lyre-born chords extended 
Harmonies of Lydian lays. 
And (thought I) lies scenes of pleasure, 
Where the free and blessed dwell, 
And each moment bears a treasure, 
Freighted with the lotos-spell, 
And there floats a liquid measure 
From the lute of Israfel. 
There (I told myself) were shining 
Worlds of happiness unknown, 
Peace and Innocence entwining 
By the Crowned Virtue's throne; 
Men of light, their thoughts refining 
Purer, fairer, than my own. 
Thus I mus'd when o'er the vision 
Crept a red delirious change; 
Hope dissolving to derision, 
Beauty to distortion strange; 
Hymnic chords in weird collision, 
Spectral sights in endless range.... 
Crimson burn'd the star of madness 
As behind the beams I peer'd; 
All was woe that seem'd but gladness 
Ere my gaze with Truth was sear'd; 
Cacodaemons, mir'd with madness, 
Through the fever'd flick'ring leer'd.... 
Now I know the fiendish fable 
The the golden glitter bore; 
Now I shun the spangled sable 
That I watch'd and lov'd before; 
But the horror, set and stable, 
Haunts my soul forevermore! 



Document modified: 02/24/2000 20:03:44