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. ( )

Let's start off by saying this is strictly for the Lovecraft completist. The verse isn't that good, in fact the early poems are downright awful, imitating some sort of 18th or 19th century style and language. They don't really have any subject matter that would interest even the hardcore Lovecraft fan; dealing with mainly sentimental subjects. These early poems are also often marred by Lovecraft's xenophobia for the "swarthy aliens."

The later poems at least deal with more Lovecraftian themes and largely abandon the faux language and style, they are more a Lovecraft voice, but even The Fungi from Yuggoth is unintentionally hilarious at times and nothing here is the least bit eerie or menacing. The other thing is that unlike Lovecraft's prose these are stripped down and have little of the heavy multi-adjective laden sentences that are either loved or reviled by the Lovecraft reader. This is probably a result of the meter and rhyme just not allowing the freedom to handle this. The result is a forced feeling. There just is not the rich metaphor that usually marks better verse. I think Lovecraft would have been much better served to adopt a more modernist free verse form that would have accommodated his writing style better. But we all know that Lovecraft considered himself an 18th century gentleman and wasn't going to employ any of these new-fangled literary devices. ( )

I bought this hardcover edition on Amazon, not noticing that the seller was THOMAS LIGOTTI, who was in the process of selling off his library. I have the paperback edition, which also includes the ullustrations--but there is something magical about owning the original Arkham House hardcover. Rather amazing that it took Derleth so long to publish a volume of Lovecraft's verse, not bringing out ye book until 1963. He had, of course, included much poetry in the second Lovecraft omnibus, BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (1943). The book is divided into sections: EARLY POEMS; THE ANCIENT TRACK; PSYCHOPOMPOS; FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH. Critics have complained that Lovecraft was a bad poet, but he wasn't. He was often a boring poet due to his antiquated themes; but when he penned of the weirdness that haunted his mind, his verse can be quite effective. I never weary of reading FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH; & I became so enchanted with that sonnet cycle that I wrote an entire book influenced by it--a book that I consider my finest. Although Lovecraft "found himself" in his works of prose, his poetry is delightful, strange, and beautiful.