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Collected Poems
Hardback book (134 pages) titled Collected Poems H.P.Lovecraft. Illustrations by Frank Utpatel. Published in a limited edition of 2000 copies (not numbered) by Arkham House in 1963. Bookseller since 1995 (ULG2-L-middle) rareviewbooks
- GenresPoetry
138 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
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35 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,458 books19.5k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 10, 2015
The juvenilia is, of course, uninspired and derivative, but anyone can be forgiven that, such being the rule rather than the exception. The fantasy and horror pieces are hit or miss, but contain that distinctly Lovecraftian note in places. "Providence" is an invocation of New England that is uneven but exquisite in places. The political poems mix warhawk jingoism with a genuinely moving love of country and culture. Lovecraft's send-up of Eliot is fairly spot-on.
Nothing in this collection of Lovecraft's poems, however, comes close to being as interesting, well-written, and interesting in its malignancy as the sonnet cycle "Fungi from Yuggoth". It's here that the Lovecraft of the cosmic horror and eldritch imaginings shows himself. A lot of the other pieces are either dully see-sawed couplets or of various passable stanza forms, but the sonnet seems to have been the most natural form to fit Lovecraft's by turns ironic and terrifying muse. The rest of the book may go to Cthulhu, but it's a shame these sonnets aren't better known; the four stars are really for them.
Nothing in this collection of Lovecraft's poems, however, comes close to being as interesting, well-written, and interesting in its malignancy as the sonnet cycle "Fungi from Yuggoth". It's here that the Lovecraft of the cosmic horror and eldritch imaginings shows himself. A lot of the other pieces are either dully see-sawed couplets or of various passable stanza forms, but the sonnet seems to have been the most natural form to fit Lovecraft's by turns ironic and terrifying muse. The rest of the book may go to Cthulhu, but it's a shame these sonnets aren't better known; the four stars are really for them.
May 12, 2020
While this eBook with 87 poems is far from complete (Lovecraft composed more than 500), it probably contains more poems than other eBooks. For the most part the poems are those which are no longer under copyright, though I wonder about those first published in A Winter Wish in 1977 or in Joshi's The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft in 2001. This collection does give easy access to some of HPL's better known poems "Fungi from Yuggoth," "The Outpost," "The Ancient Track," "Festival," and "Hallowe'en in a Suburb." Two pluses to this compilation: the poems are arranged in categories to indicate Lovecraft's poetic interests and the poems are properly formatted rather than just left justified. If one is looking for an introduction to Lovecraft's verse, and doesn't want to dip into the longer Joshi collections, this eBook is a good place to start.
August 26, 2024
Not the most interesting poetry collection I’ve read but definitely a one of the challenging ones to read for me, just because of how Lovecraft structured his sentences and metre.
However, if you’re a Lovecraft completionist then I guess you’d enjoy the poetry in this collection.
However, if you’re a Lovecraft completionist then I guess you’d enjoy the poetry in this collection.
December 26, 2017
Nothing like reading Christmas poems by the Master of Cosmic Darkness on Christmas Day!
September 7, 2019
Lovecraft's Poetry Collection:
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews