"Hallowe'en in a Suburb"/Classics from the Crypt

 

The steeples are white in the wild moonlight,               
      And the trees have a silver glare;
Past the chimneys high see the vampires fly,
      And the harpies of upper air,
      That flutter and laugh and stare.

For the village dead to the moon outspread
      Never shone in the sunset’s gleam,
But grew out of the deep that the dead years keep
      Where the rivers of madness stream
      Down the gulfs to a pit of dream.

A chill wind weaves thro’ the rows of sheaves
      In the meadows that shimmer pale,
And comes to twine where the headstones shine
      And the ghouls of the churchyard wail
      For harvests that fly and fail.

Not a breath of the strange grey gods of change
      That tore from the past its own
Can quicken this hour, when a spectral pow’r              
     Spreads sleep o’er the cosmic throne
      And looses the vast unknown.

So here again stretch the vale and plain
      That moons long-forgotten saw,
And the dead leap gay in the pallid ray,
      Sprung out of the tomb’s black maw
      To shake all the world with awe.

And all that the morn shall greet forlorn,
      The ugliness and the pest
Of rows where thick rise the stones & brick,
      Shall some day be with the rest,
      And brood with the shades unblest.

Then wild in the dark let the lemurs bark,
      And the leprous spires ascend;
For new and old alike in the fold
      Of horror and death are penn’d,
      For the hounds of Time to rend.

- H.P. Lovecraft

"Hallowe'en in a Suburb" first published in The National Amateur, March 1926 (as “In a Suburb”)

 

 

An addendum to TA's '09 Halloween post music links: more "Classics from the Crypt"-

Nuages Gris- Franz Liszt

Toccata (from Suite Gothique)- L. Boellman

Pluto, Lord of the Underworld (from The Planets)- Gustav Holst

L'Escalier du Diable- Gyorgy Ligeti

Catacombs (from Pictures at an Exhibition)- Mussorgsky

March to the Scaffold (from Symphonie Fantastique)- Hector Berlioz

Infernal Dance (from the Firebird Suite)- Igor Stravinsky

Bonus Track: Toccata & Fugue in D Minor (youtube clip from Disney's Fantasia, 1940)- J.S. Bach

 

Happy Halloween, everyone.

-Maureen Lang

 
 

Comments

[Panaman]

That looks like your flying crank ghost in the last pic Maureen but those aren't your windows so I'm guessing it's somebody elses. Thanks for alerting me to the great Halloween music list in this post. Have yourself a time on Halloween. Cthulu Lives!!!!!

[Maureen Lang]

Panaman,

Nice to see you here. My two FCGs have retired after much service- were sold, actually, but we are using quite a few blacklit ghosts outside this year rather than any animated ones in the windows.

As a skier awa surfer, I thought you might appreciate the knitted Cthulhu ski mask.

[rick]

Happy Haloween and thanks for these yearly posts. I'm a huge HPL fan, and in fact me and the wife are planning a tour of Lovecraft country next fall. There's a B&B in providence thats apparently a very good candidate for being "The Shunned House".

Here's a site for more or less weekly audio Lovecraftia:
http://cthulhupodcast.blogspot.com/

It's horrifyingly good stuff.

[Maureen Lang]

rick,

Glad you've been enjoying the Halloween posts.

A visit to Providence in the fall sounds lovely- have always wanted to go there & poke around in HPL's home turf. Much thanks for the great link- I'm enjoying exploring it right now.

Happy Halloween!

[Craig V.]

"L'Escalier du Diable"! Can you play it, Mo? If you can handle "Kitten on the Keys" you can surely do the Ligeti! Nice Halloween post, thanks for forwarding.

[Maureen Lang]

Craig,

Thanks for commenting. The Ligeti is certainly interesting, isn't it? Printed the sheet music for "Nuages Gris" off the net, but no time right now to tackle even that due to extensive Halloween yard decorating. I also tend to see the stiff fingers of R.A. getting in the way of those Diable scale runs...

Hope you & Meredith have a great Halloween.

[Dave W.]

Really like this post. If you're not already aware of it early Halloween classic movie 1922 Nosferatu is on TCM tonight. That's Sunday night Oct. 24.

[Maureen Lang]

Thanks for the heads up, Dave. Some prefer later Murnau films such as "Sunrise," but my favorite has always been "Nosferatu."

On Halloween night (post charity yard haunt) we'll be relaxing by the fire with bowls of pumpkin chili & a midnight viewing of the excellent "Shadow of the Vampire." I highly recommend this film, especially for Halloween- worth renting for Willem DaFoe's superb performance as The Vampire & the campy scenery-chewing turn by John Malkovich as Murnau.

[Dave W.]

I find John Malkovich's performance actually restrained compared to a few others he's done, but DaFoe is worth watching and Eddie Izzard in a serious role as the actor playing Jonathan Harker. Have a Happy Halloween.

[Maureen Lang]

FYI-

This is also a wonderful weekend on TCM for fans of classic fright films- from Vincent Price in "House of Wax" to Bela Lugosi in "White Zombie" to "Cat People" & right on through a Hammer Horror Film extravaganza. Capping it all on Halloween night will be Lon Chaney's 1925 version of "Phantom of the Opera." TCM has a very good print of this, so we all can appreciate the outstanding set design & use of lighting in this amazing film, as well as Chaney's brilliant performance.
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.jsp?startDate=10/29/2010&timezone=EST&cid=N

Have a Happy Halloween, one & all!