The Dead Come From Somewhere Much Older
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.
The second stanza takes the poem somewhere considerably stranger.
The village dead are connected with imagery of forgotten ages, madness and an ominous dreamlike realm.
This is where the poem begins to feel distinctly Lovecraftian.
The dead aren't simply dead people.
They seem connected to something ancient.
Something that existed before the present world.
And that's an important distinction.
Traditional ghost stories often ask:
Who is haunting this place?
Lovecraft tends to ask:
What was here before anybody thought this place belonged to us?
That's a much less comforting question.
The imagery of rivers of madness and a vast dreamlike pit gives the poem a sense that the supernatural isn't merely occupying the village.
It is connected to something much deeper.
Something humanity doesn't understand.
And probably shouldn't Google.
