H. P. Lovecraft

THE COMPLETE POETRY of H. P. Lovecraft
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Part III. Occasional Verse

On Receiving a Picture of Swans

Written: 14th September 1915

First Published in The Conservative, Vol. 1, No. 4 (January 1916), Pages 2–3

Impromtu verse, or ‘poetry’ to order, is easy only when approached in the cooly prosaic sprit. Given something to say, a metrical mechanic like myself can easily hammer the matter into technically correct verse, substituting formal poetic diction for real inspiration or thought. For instance, I lately received a post-card bearing the picture of swans on a placid stream. Desiring to reply in appropriate verse, I harked back to the classic myth of Phaethon and Cygnus, handling it as follows:

 With pensive grace the melancholy Swan
 Mourns o’er the tomb of luckless Phaëton;
 On grassy banks the weeping poplars wave,
 And guard with tender care the wat’ry grave.
 Would that I might, should I too proudly claim
 An Heav’nly parent, or a Godlike fame,
 When flown too high, and dash’d to depths below,
 Receive such tribute as a Cygnus’ woe!
 The faithful bird, that dumbly floats along,
 Sighs all the deeper for his want of song.
 “This required about 10 minutes of composition.”
 

—in a letter to Robert Kleiner, 1915