Astrophobos

§4§lAstrophobos§0 §4§lBy H. P. Lovecraft

In the midnight heavens burning§0 §0 Thro’ ethereal deeps afar,§0 §0Once I watch’d with restless yearning§0 §0 An alluring, aureate star;§0 §0Ev’ry eye aloft returning,§0 §0 Gleaming nigh the Arctic car.

Mystic waves of beauty blended§0 §0 With the gorgeous golden rays;§0 §0Phantasies of bliss descended§0 §0 In a myrrh’d Elysian haze;§0 §0And in lyre-born chords extended§0 §0 Harmonies of Lydian lays.§0

There (thought I) lies scenes of pleasure,§0 §0 Where the free and blessed dwell,§0 §0And each moment bears a treasure§0 §0 Freighted with a lotus-spell,§0 §0And there floats a liquid measure§0 §0 From the lute of Israfel.

There (I told myself) were shining§0 §0 Worlds of happiness unknown,§0 §0Peace and Innocence entwining§0 §0 By the Crowned Virtue’s throne;§0 §0Men of light, their thoughts refining§0 §0 Purer, fairer, than our own.

Thus I mus’d, when o’er the vision§0 §0 Crept a red delirious change;§0 §0Hope dissolving to derision,§0 §0 Beauty to distortion strange;§0 §0Hymnic chords in weird collision,§0 §0 Spectral sights in endless range.

Crimson burn’d the star of sadness§0 §0 As behind the beams I peer’d;§0 §0All was woe that seem’d but gladness§0 §0 Ere my gaze with truth was sear’d;§0 §0Cacodaemons, mir’d with madness,§0 §0 Thro’ the fever’d flick’ring leer’d.§0

Now I know the fiendish fable§0 §0 That the golden glitter bore;§0 §0Now I shun the spangled sable§0 §0 That I watch’d and lov’d before;§0 §0But the horror, set and stable,§0 §0 Haunts my soul for evermore.