Alone in space, I view’d a feeble fleck
Of silvern light, marking the narrow ken
Which mortals call the boundless universe.
On ev’ry side, each as a tiny star,
Shone more creations, vaster than our own.
As on a moonless night, the Milky Way
In a solid sheen displays its countless orbs
To weak terrestrial eyes, each orb a sun;
So beam’d the prospect on my wond’ring soul;
A spangled curtain, rich with twinkling gems.
Yet each a mighty universe of suns…
And all the universe in my view
But a poor atom in infinity.
H. P. Lovecraft (1890 – 1937)
From “The Poe-et’s Nightmare”
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born august 20, 1890. He was an American author of horror, fantasy, poetry and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction. Lovecraft’s guiding aesthetic and philosophical principle was what he termed “cosmicism” or “cosmic horror”, the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally inimical to the interests of humankind. As such, his stories express a profound indifference to human beliefs and affairs. Lovecraft is the originator of the Cthulhu Mythos story cycle and the Necronomicon, a fictional magical textbook of rites and forbidden lore. (Wikipedia)
Image: Keyhole Nebula – Hubble 1999 (NASA)
