{"id":969,"date":"2013-11-03T20:41:01","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T04:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/?p=969"},"modified":"2022-01-28T09:58:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T17:58:27","slug":"1103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stickpersonpoetry.com\/spp\/2013\/11\/03\/1103\/","title":{"rendered":"1103"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

1103
\nHoward Phillips <3\u00a0Craft<\/p>\n

Hallowe\u2019en in a Suburb<\/strong>
\nBy H. P. Lovecraft<\/p>\n

The steeples are white in the wild moonlight,
\nAnd the trees have a silver glare;
\nPast the chimneys high see the vampires fly,
\nAnd the harpies of upper air,
\nThat flutter and laugh and stare.<\/p>\n

For the village dead to the moon outspread
\nNever shone in the sunset\u2019s gleam,
\nBut grew out of the deep that the dead years keep
\nWhere the rivers of madness stream
\nDown the gulfs to a pit of dream.<\/p>\n

A chill wind weaves thro\u2019 the rows of sheaves
\nIn the meadows that shimmer pale,
\nAnd comes to twine where the headstones shine
\nAnd the ghouls of the churchyard wail
\nFor harvests that fly and fail.<\/p>\n

Not a breath of the strange grey gods of change
\nThat tore from the past its own
\nCan quicken this hour, when a spectral pow\u2019r
\nSpreads sleep o\u2019er the cosmic throne
\nAnd looses the vast unknown.<\/p>\n

So here again stretch the vale and plain
\nThat moons long-forgotten saw,
\nAnd the dead leap gay in the pallid ray,
\nSprung out of the tomb\u2019s black maw
\nTo shake all the world with awe.<\/p>\n

And all that the morn shall greet forlorn,
\nThe ugliness and the pest
\nOf rows where thick rise the stones and brick,
\nShall some day be with the rest,
\nAnd brood with the shades unblest.<\/p>\n

Then wild in the dark let the lemurs bark,
\nAnd the leprous spires ascend;
\nFor new and old alike in the fold
\nOf horror and death are penn\u2019d,
\nFor the hounds of Time to rend.<\/p>\n