The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft
by H. P. Lovecraft
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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 show more 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. show lessTags
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Lovecraft isn’t known to receive commendations for his poetry, but for what it’s worth, I like it.
Dark and dramatic, painting pictures with rhythm and meter and a whole lot of words that don’t mean much besides the image they give. Sure, reading several poems in succession highlights the repeated phrases and motifs, but everyone has their favorite phrases. Reading his poems aloud, I fall into the iambic cadence and feel a resonance, some deep chord echoing with a distant rumble up and out of the earth.
Read over his poem Nemesis loud, you’ll see what I mean.
Idk. I’m not a poet. I like it.
This compendium includes not only Lovecraft’s poems, but a host of other materials which I imagine would be useful for one writing a paper show more or doing some other sort of analysis. These include poems inspired by Lovecraft’s works, lists of resources, and other things I didn’t read. show less
Dark and dramatic, painting pictures with rhythm and meter and a whole lot of words that don’t mean much besides the image they give. Sure, reading several poems in succession highlights the repeated phrases and motifs, but everyone has their favorite phrases. Reading his poems aloud, I fall into the iambic cadence and feel a resonance, some deep chord echoing with a distant rumble up and out of the earth.
Read over his poem Nemesis loud, you’ll see what I mean.
Idk. I’m not a poet. I like it.
This compendium includes not only Lovecraft’s poems, but a host of other materials which I imagine would be useful for one writing a paper show more or doing some other sort of analysis. These include poems inspired by Lovecraft’s works, lists of resources, and other things I didn’t read. show less
Complete collection of all Lovecrafts work. It includes quite a lot of uninspired poetry but all of his best work is here.
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Poetry of H.P. Lovecraft in Thing(amabrarian)s That Go Bump in the Night (September 2007)
Author Information
1,912+ Works 73,646 Members
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1890 - 1937 H. P. Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother was Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft and his father was Winfield Scott Lovecraft, a traveling salesman for Gorham & Co. Silversmtihs. Lovecraft was reciting poetry at the age of two and when he was three years old, his father show more suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted to Butler Hospital. He spent five years there before dying on July 19, 1898 of paresis, a form of neurosyphillis. During those five years, Lovecraft was told that his father was paralyzed and in a coma, which was not the case. His mother, two aunts and grandfather were now bringing up Lovecraft. He suffered from frequent illnesses as a boy, many of which were psychological. He began writing between the ages of six and seven and, at about the age of eight, he discovered science. He began to produce the hectographed journals, "The Scientific Gazette" (1899-1907) and "The Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy" (1903-07). His first appearance in print happened, in 1906, when he wrote a letter on an astronomical matter to The Providence Sunday Journal. A short time later, he began writing a monthly astronomy column for The Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner - a rural paper. He also wrote columns for The Providence Tribune (1906-08), The Providence Evening News (1914-18), The Asheville (N.C.) Gazette-News (1915). In 1904, his grandfather died and the family suffered severe financial difficulties, which forced him and his mother to move out of their Victorian home. Devastated by this, he apparently contemplated suicide. In 1908, before graduating from high school, he suffered a nervous breakdown. He didn't receive a diploma and failed to get into Brown University, both of which caused him great shame. Lovecraft was not heard from for five years, re-emerging because of a letter he wrote in protest to Fred Jackson's love story in The Argosy. His letter was published in 1913 and caused great controversy, which was noted by Edward F. Daas, President of the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA). Daas invited Lovecraft to join the UAPA, which he did in early 1914. He eventually became President and Official Editor of the UAPA and served briefly as President of the rival National Amateur Press Association (NAPA). He published thirteen issues of his own paper, The Conservative (1915-23) and contributed poetry and essays to other journals. He also wrote some fiction which titles include "The Beast in the Cave" (1905), "The Alchemist" (1908), "The Tomb" and "Dagon" (1917). In 1919, Lovecraft's mother was deteriorating, mentally and physically, and was admitted to Butler Hospital. On May 24, 1921, his mother died from a gall bladder operation. While attending an amateur journalism convention in Boston, Lovecraft met his future wife Sonia Haft Greene, a Russian Jew. They were married on March 3, 1924 and Lovecraft moved to her apartment in Brooklyn. Sonia had a shop on Fifth Avenue that went bankrupt. In 1925, Sonia went to Cleveland for a job and Lovecraft moved to a smaller apartment in the Red Hook district of Brooklyn. In 1926, he decided to move back to Providence. Lovecraft had his aunts bar his wife, Sonia, from going to Providence to start a business because he couldn't have the stigma of a tradeswoman wife. They were divorced in 1929. After his return to Providence, he wrote his greatest fiction, which included the titles "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926), "At the Mountains of Madness" (1931), and "The Shadow Out of Time" (1934-35). In 1932, his aunt, Mrs. Clark, died; and he moved in with his other aunt, Mrs. Gamwell, in 1933. Suffering from cancer of the intestine, Lovecraft was admitted to Jane Brown Memorial Hospital and on March 15, 1937 he died. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft
- Original publication date
- 1897 - 1936 (original poems) (original poems)
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- Members
- 173
- Popularity
- 188,701
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.88)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
