Where Once Poe Walked / H.P. Lovecraft

Where Once Poe Walked

Eternal brood the shadows on this ground,
Dreaming of centuries that have gone before;
Great elms rise solemnly by slab and mound,
Arched high above a hidden world of yore.
Round all the scene a light of memory plays,
And dead leaves whisper of departed days,
Longing for sights and sounds that are no more.

Lonely and sad, a specter glides along
Aisles where of old his living footsteps fell;
No common glance discerns him, though his song
Peals down through time with a mysterious spell.
Only the few who sorcery's secret know,
Espy amidst these tombs the shade of Poe.

~~
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
from Weird Tales, 1938

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

"Where Poe Once Walked" animation by Jim Clark 2014

H.P. Lovecraft bibliography