{"id":241,"date":"2013-04-07T14:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T21:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/?p=241"},"modified":"2022-01-28T10:00:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T18:00:25","slug":"0407","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/2013\/04\/07\/0407\/","title":{"rendered":"0407"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

0407
\nCthulpope fhtagn<\/p>\n

The Nightmare Lake<\/strong>
\nBy H. P. Lovecraft<\/p>\n

There is a lake in distant Zan,
\nBeyond the wonted haunts of man,
\nWhere broods alone in a hideous state
\nA spirit dead and desolate;
\nA spirit ancient and unholy,
\nHeavy with fearsome melancholy,
\nWhich from the waters dull and dense
\nDraws vapors cursed with pestilence.
\nAround the banks, a mire of clay,
\nSprawl things offensive in decay,
\nAnd curious birds that reach that shore
\nAre seen by mortals nevermore.
\nHere shines by day the searing sun
\nOn glassy wastes beheld by none,
\nAnd here by night pale moonbeams flow
\nInto the deeps that yawn below.
\nIn nightmares only is it told
\nWhat scenes beneath those beams unfold;
\nWhat scenes, too old for human sight,
\nLie sunken there in endless night;
\nFor in those depths there only pace
\nThe shadows of a voiceless race.
\nOne midnight, redolent of ill,
\nI saw that lake, asleep and still;
\nWhile in the lurid sky there rode
\nA gibbous moon that glow\u2019d and glow\u2019d.
\nI saw the stretching marshy shore,
\nAnd the foul things those marshes bore:
\nLizards and snakes convuls\u2019d and dying;
\nRavens and vampires putrefying;
\nAll these, and hov\u2019ring o\u2019er the dead,
\nNarcophagi that on them fed.
\nAnd as the dreadful moon climb\u2019d high,
\nFright\u2019ning the stars from out the sky,
\nI saw the lake\u2019s dull water glow
\nTill sunken things appear\u2019d below.
\nThere shone unnumber\u2019d fathoms down,
\nThe tow\u2019rs of a forgotten town;
\nThe tarnish\u2019d domes and mossy walls;
\nWeed-tangled spires and empty halls;
\nDeserted fanes and vaults of dread,
\nAnd streets of gold uncoveted.
\nThese I beheld, and saw beside
\nA horde of shapeless shadows glide;
\nA noxious horde which to my glance
\nSeem\u2019d moving in a hideous dance
\nRound slimy sepulchres that lay
\nBeside a never-travell\u2019d way.
\nStraight from those tombs a heaving rose
\nThat vex\u2019d the waters\u2019 dull repose,
\nWhile lethal shades of upper space
\nHowl\u2019d at the moon\u2019s sardonic face.
\nThen sank the lake within its bed,
\nSuck\u2019d down to caverns of the dead,
\nTill from the reeking, new-stript earth
\nCurl\u2019d foetid fumes of noisome birth.
\nAbout the city, nigh uncover\u2019d,
\nThe monstrous dancing shadows hover\u2019d,
\nWhen lo! there oped with sudden stir
\nThe portal of each sepulchre!
\nNo ear may learn, no tongue may tell
\nWhat nameless horror then befell.
\nI see that lake\u2014that moon agrin\u2014
\nThat city and the things within\u2014
\nWaking, I pray that on that shore
\nThe nightmare lake may sink no more!<\/p>\n