The Ancient Track

by Lovecraft, H. P.; Joshi, S. T.

• ISBN13: 9781892389152
• ISBN10: 1892389150
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-01
• Publisher: Nightshade Book

Summary

H. P. Lovecraft is best known for his fiction, but he spent a great portion of his creative energy on his poetry. The Ancient Track collects the complete poetry of one of the twentieth centuries most iconic writers. The great majority of these poems were written between 1914, and 1920, the period of Lovecraft's heaviest concentration on poetry. Lovecraft's poetry may be regarded as the lesser of is literary output, but it merits collection precisely because it is an important ancillary to his other more well known forms of creative endeavor. Prior to the publication of The Ancient Track, Lovecraft's poetry had been scattered across several different volumes whose textual accuracy has not always been exemplary, while several pomes had been uncollected. "This is an essential tome for every self-respecting Lovecraftian..." - Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
Juvenilia
The Poem of Ulysses, or The Odyssey	3	(2)
Ovid's Metamorphoses	5	(3)
H. Lovecraft's Attempted Journey betwixt Providence & Fall River on the N.Y.N.H. & H.R.R.	8	(3)
Poemata Minora, Volume II	11	(2)
Ode to Selene or Diana	11	(1)
To the Old Pagan Religion	11	(1)
On the Ruin of Rome	12	(1)
To Pan	12	(1)
On the Vanity of Human Ambition	13	(1)
C.S.A. 1861--1865: To the Starry Cross of the SOUTH	13	(1)
De Triumpho Naturae	13	(4)
Fantasy and Horror
To the Late John H. Fowler, Esq.	17	(1)
The Unknown	18	(1)
The Poe-et's Nightmare	18	(8)
The Rutted Road	26	(1)
Nemesis	27	(2)
Astrophobos	29	(1)
Psychopompos: A Tale in Rhyme	30	(8)
The Eidolon	38	(2)
A Cycle of Verse	40	(2)
Oceanus	40	(1)
Clouds	41	(1)
Mother Earth	41	(1)
Despair	42	(1)
Revelation	43	(2)
The House	45	(1)
The City	46	(2)
To Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Eighteenth Baron Dunsany	48	(2)
The Nightmare Lake	50	(1)
Bells	51	(2)
On Reading Lord Dunsany's Book of Wonder	53	(1)
To a Dreamer	53	(1)
With a Copy of Wilde's Fairy Tales	54	(1)
On The Thing in the Woods	55	(1)
Harper Williams
The Cats	55	(1)
Primavera	56	(2)
Festival	58	(1)
Hallowe'en in a Suburb	59	(1)
On Ambrose Bierce	60	(1)
The Wood	60	(1)
The Outpost	61	(1)
The Ancient Track	62	(1)
The Messenger	63	(1)
Fungi from Yuggoth	64	(15)
The Book	64	(1)
Pursuit	65	(1)
The Key	65	(1)
Recognition	65	(1)
Homecoming	66	(1)
The Lamp	66	(1)
Zaman's Hill	67	(1)
The Port	67	(1)
The Courtyard	67	(1)
The Pigeon-Flyers	68	(1)
The Well	68	(1)
The Howler	69	(1)
Hesperia	69	(1)
Star-Winds	69	(1)
Antarktos	70	(1)
The Window	70	(1)
A Memory	71	(1)
The Gardens of Yin	71	(1)
The Bells	71	(1)
Night-Gaunts	72	(1)
Nyarlathotep	72	(1)
Azathoth	73	(1)
Mirage	73	(1)
The Canal	74	(1)
St. Toad's	74	(1)
The Familiars	74	(1)
The Elder Pharos	75	(1)
Expectancy	75	(1)
Nostalgia	76	(1)
Background	76	(1)
The Dweller	76	(1)
Alienation	77	(1)
Harbour Whistles	77	(1)
Recapture	78	(1)
Evening Star	78	(1)
Continuity	78	(1)
Bouts Rimes	79	(1)
Beyond Zimbabwe	79	(1)
The White Elephant	79	(1)
In a Sequester'd Providence Churchyard Where Once Poe Walk'd	79	(1)
To Mr. Finlay, upon His Drawing for Mr. Bloch's Tale, ``The Faceless God''	80	(1)
To Clark Ashton Smith, Esq., upon His Phantastick Tales, Verses, Pictures, and Sculptures	80	(1)
Nathicana	81	(6)
Occasional Verse
The Members of the Men's Club of the First Universalist Church of Providence, R.I., to Its President, About to Leave for Florida on Account of His Health	87	(1)
To Mr. Terhune, on His Historical Fiction	88	(1)
To Mr. Munroe, on His Instructive and Entertaining Account of Switzerland	89	(1)
Regner Lodbrog's Epicedium	90	(2)
To an Accomplished Young Gentlewoman on Her Birthday, Decr. 2, 1914	92	(1)
On Receiving a Picture of Swans	92	(1)
To Charlie of the Comics	93	(1)
On the Cowboys of the West	94	(1)
To Samuel Loveman, Esquire, on His Poetry and Drama, Writ in the Elizabethan Style	94	(1)
The Bookstall	95	(2)
Content	97	(2)
The Smile	99	(3)
Inspiration	102	(1)
Respite	103	(1)
Brotherhood	103	(1)
Lines on Graduation from the R.I. Hospital's School of Nurses	104	(2)
Fact and Fancy	106	(1)
Percival Lowell	107	(1)
Prologue to ``Fragments from an Hour of Inspiration''	107	(1)
Jonathan E. Hoag
Earth and Sky	108	(1)
To M. W. M.	109	(1)
Lines on the 25th. Anniversary of the Providence Evening News, 1892--1917	109	(2)
To the Nurses of the Red Cross	111	(1)
To the Arcadian	112	(1)
Laeta; a Lament	113	(2)
To Mr. Kleiner, on Receiving from Him the Poetical Works of Addison, Gay, and Somerville	115	(1)
A Pastoral Tragedy of Appleton, Wisconsin	116	(2)
Damon and Delia, a Pastoral	118	(3)
To Delia, Avoiding Damon	121	(3)
Hellas	124	(1)
Ambition	124	(1)
Damon: A Monody	125	(1)
Hylas and Myrrha: A Tale	125	(5)
John Oldham: A Defence	130	(1)
Myrrha and Strephon	130	(2)
Wisdom	132	(1)
Tryout's Lament for the Vanished Spider	133	(2)
Cindy: Scrub-Lady in a State Street Skyscraper	135	(1)
The Voice	136	(2)
On a Grecian Colonnade in a Park	138	(1)
The Dream	139	(2)
To Alfred Galpin, Esq.	141	(1)
On Receiving a Portraiture of Mrs. Berkeley, ye Poetess	142	(2)
To a Youth	144	(1)
On the Return of Maurice Winter Moe, Esq., to the Pedagogical Profession	145	(1)
To Mr. Galpin	146	(1)
Sir Thomas Tryout	147	(2)
To Damon	149	(2)
To Rheinhart Kleiner, Esq.	151	(2)
Chloris and Damon	153	(2)
To Endymion	155	(1)
To Mr. Baldwin, on Receiving a Picture of Him in a Rural Bower	156	(1)
Damon and Lyce	157	(3)
On the Pyramids	160	(1)
Stanzas on Samarkand	160	(1)
To Samuel Loveman, Esq.	161	(1)
To George Kirk, Esq.	162	(1)
My Favourite Character	162	(1)
[On the Double-R Coffee House]	163	(1)
On Rheinhart Kleiner Being Hit by an Automobile	164	(1)
To Frank Belknap Long on His Birthday	165	(1)
A Year Off	165	(2)
To an Infant	167	(2)
To George Willard Kirk, Gent., of Chelsea-Village, in New-York, upon His Birthday, Novr. 25, 1925	169	(1)
On Old Grimes	170	(1)
Albert Gorton Greene
In Memoriam: Oscar Incoul Verelst of Manhattan: 1920--1926	171	(1)
The Return	171	(2)
Hedone	173	(1)
To Miss Beryl Hoyt	174	(1)
To a Sophisticated Young Gentleman	174	(3)
Veteropinguis Redivivus	177	(2)
To a Young Poet in Dunedin	179	(1)
Metrical Example	179	(1)
The Odes of Horace: Book III, ix	180	(1)
Gaudeamus	181	(1)
The Greatest Law	181	(4)
Sonnet Study	185	(1)
To Samuel Loveman Esq	186	(1)
Verses Designed to Be Sent by a Friend of the Author to His Brother-in-Law on New Year's Day	187	(1)
Last of an elder race . . .	187	(1)
['Tis a sprig of green shamrock . . .]	188	(3)
Satire
Providence in 2000 A.D.	191	(1)
Fragment on Whitman	192	(1)
[On Robert Browning]	193	(1)
Ad Criticos	193	(5)
Liber Primus	193	(1)
Liber Secundus	194	(2)
Liber Tertius	196	(1)
Liber Quartus	197	(1)
Frustra Praemunitus	198	(1)
De Scriptore Mulieroso	199	(1)
On a Modern Lothario	199	(1)
The End of the Jackson War	199	(1)
The Power of Wine: A Satire	200	(2)
Gryphus in Asinum Mutatus	202	(2)
The Simple Speller's Tale	204	(2)
[On Slang]	206	(1)
Ye Ballade of Patrick von Flynn	206	(2)
The Isaacsonio-Mortoniad	208	(3)
Unda; or, The Bride of the Sea	211	(2)
[On ``Unda; or, The Bride of the Sea'']	213	(1)
Gems from In a Minor Key	214	(1)
The State of Poetry	215	(2)
The Magazine Poet	217	(1)
My Lost Love	217	(1)
The Beauties of Peace	218	(2)
Epitaph on ye Letterr Rrr...	220	(1)
The Dead Bookworm	221	(1)
Ad Balneum	222	(1)
[On Kelso the Poet]	223	(1)
Futurist Art	223	(1)
The Nymph's Reply to the Modern Business Man	224	(1)
Pacifist War Song---1917	224	(1)
The Poet of Passion	225	(1)
On the Death of a Rhyming Critic	226	(1)
To the Incomparable Clorinda	227	(1)
To Saccharissa, Fairest of Her Sex	228	(1)
To Rhodoclia--Peerless among Maidens	228	(1)
To Belinda, Favourite of the Graces	228	(1)
To Heliodora--Sister of Cytheraea	229	(1)
To Mistress Sophia Simple, Queen of the Cinema	229	(1)
The Introduction	230	(1)
Grace	231	(1)
To Col. Linkaby Didd	231	(3)
Amissa Minerva	234	(3)
[On Prohibition]	237	(1)
Monody on the Late King Alcohol	237	(1)
The Pensive Swain	238	(1)
To Phillis	239	(1)
On Religion	240	(1)
The Pathetick History of Sir Wilful Wildrake	241	(3)
Medusa: A Portrait	244	(2)
Simplicity: A Poem	246	(2)
Plaster-All	248	(3)
To Zara	251	(1)
Waste Paper	252	(4)
[On a Politician]	256	(1)
[On a Room for Rent]	256	(1)
[On J. F. Roy Erford]	256	(1)
Lines upon the Magnates of the Pulp	257	(1)
Dead Passion's Flame	258	(1)
Arcadia	258	(1)
Lullaby for the Dionne Quintuplets	258	(1)
The Decline and Fall of a Man of the World	259	(1)
[Epigrams]	259	(1)
Life's Mystery	260	(1)
On Mr. L. Phillips Howard's Profound Poem Entitled ``Life's Mystery''	261	(1)
On an Accomplished Young Linguist	261	(1)
``The Poetical Punch'' Pushed from His Pedestal	261	(1)
The Road to Ruin	262	(1)
Sors Poetae	263	(4)
Seasonal and Topographical
Quinsnicket Park	267	(3)
New England	270	(1)
March	270	(1)
A Mississippi Autumn	271	(1)
A Rural Summer Eve	272	(2)
Brumalia	274	(1)
On Receiving a Picture of the Marshes at Ipswich	275	(1)
Spring	275	(1)
A Garden	276	(1)
April	277	(1)
On Receiving a Picture of ye Towne of Templeton, in the Colonie of Massachusetts-Bay, with Mount Monadnock, in New-Hampshire, Shewn in the Distance	278	(1)
Autumn	279	(2)
Sunset	281	(1)
Old Christmas	282	(8)
A Summer Sunset and Evening	290	(1)
A Winter Wish	291	(2)
Ver Rusticum	293	(2)
A June Afternoon	295	(1)
The Spirit of Summer	296	(1)
August	297	(1)
April Dawn	298	(1)
January	299	(1)
October [1]	299	(1)
Christmas	300	(1)
[On Marblehead]	300	(2)
[On a Scene in Rural Rhode Island]	302	(1)
Providence	302	(2)
Solstice	304	(1)
October [2]	305	(1)
[On Newport, Rhode Island]	306	(1)
The East India Brick Row	307	(1)
On an Unspoil'd Rural Prospect	308	(1)
Saturnalia	309	(1)
[Christmas Greetings]	310	(25)
Amateur Affairs
To the Members of the Pin-Feathers on the Merits of Their Organisation, and of Their New Publication, The Pinfeather	335	(1)
To the Rev. James Pyke	336	(1)
To the Members of the United Amateur Press Association from the Providence Amateur Press Club	336	(2)
The Bay-Stater's Policy	338	(1)
R. Kleiner, Laureatus, in Heliconem	338	(1)
Providence Amateur Press Club (Deceased) to the Athenaeum Club of Journalism	339	(2)
To Mr. Lockhart, on His Poetry	341	(1)
To Jonathan E. Hoag, Esq.	342	(2)
To Arthur Goodenough, Esq.	344	(1)
To the Eighth of November	345	(1)
To the A.H.S.P.C., on Receipt of the Christmas Pippin	346	(1)
Greetings	347	(1)
To Jonathan Hoag, Esq.	348	(2)
In Memoriam: J. E. T. D.	350	(1)
To the A.H.S.P.C., on Receipt of the May Pippin	350	(2)
Helene Hoffman Cole: 1893--1919	352	(1)
On Collaboration	353	(5)
Birthday Lines to Margfred Galbraham	358	(1)
Ad Scribam	358	(2)
Ex-Poet's Reply	360	(1)
To Two Epgephi	360	(1)
Theobaldian Aestivation	360	(4)
The Prophecy of Capys Secundus	364	(3)
To Mr. Hoag	367	(1)
On a Poet's Ninety-first Birthday	368	(1)
To Saml: Loveman, Gent	369	(1)
To Mr. Hoag	369	(2)
The Feast	371	(2)
Lines for Poets' Night at the Scribblers' Club	373	(2)
To Mr. Hoag	375	(2)
To Mr. Hoag	377	(1)
To Jonathan Hoag	378	(1)
To Jonathan E. Hoag, Esq.	379	(2)
The Absent Leader	381	(1)
Ave atque Vale	382	(1)
To ``The Scribblers''	383	(6)
Politics and Society
New-England Fallen	389	(4)
On the Creation of Niggers	393	(1)
On a New-England Village Seen by Moonlight	393	(1)
To General Villa	394	(1)
The Teuton's Battle-Song	395	(2)
1914	397	(1)
The Crime of Crimes	398	(2)
An American to Mother England	400	(2)
Temperance Song	402	(1)
The Rose of England	403	(1)
Lines on Gen. Robert Edward Lee	403	(2)
Britannia Victura	405	(1)
Iterum Conjunctae	406	(1)
The Peace Advocate	406	(3)
To Greece, 1917	409	(2)
Ode for July Fourth, 1917	411	(1)
An American to the British Flag	411	(1)
The Volunteer	412	(1)
Ad Britannos--1918	413	(3)
On a Battlefield in Picardy	416	(1)
The Link	417	(1)
To Alan Seeger	417	(1)
Germania---1918	418	(3)
The Conscript	421	(2)
To Maj.-Gen. Omar Bundy, U.S.A.	423	(2)
Theodore Roosevelt	425	(2)
North and South Britons	427	(4)
Personal
[To His Mother on Thanksgiving]	431	(1)
An Elegy on Franklin Chase Clark, M.D.	431	(1)
[The Solace of Georgian Poetry]	432	(1)
[On Phillips Gamwell]	432	(2)
An Elegy on Phillips Gamwell, Esq.	434	(1)
Sonnet on Myself	435	(1)
Phaeton	435	(1)
Monos: An Ode	436	(1)
Oct. 17, 1919	437	(1)
To S. S. L.--Oct. 17, 1920	437	(1)
S. S. L.: Christmas 1920	438	(1)
To Xanthippe, on Her Birthday---March 16, 1925	438	(1)
EEι&seta; Σ&phis;ιγγην	438	(1)
[On Cheating the Post Office]	439	(1)
An Epistle to the Rt. Honble Maurice Winter Moe, Esq.	439	(5)
[Anthem of the Kappa Alpha Tau]	444	(1)
Edith Miniter	445	(1)
[Little Sam Perkins]	446	(1)
Alfredo; a Tragedy	447	(18)
Fragments	465	(6)
Notes	471	(48)
A Chronology of Lovecraft's Poems	519	(12)
Index of Titles	531	(12)
Index of First Lines	543