Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu

Author's Note: Based on The Call of Cthulhu, written in 1926. I'm pretty sure you'll all know this story. 

'CTHULHU CULT' my uncle's notes read

Notes and information on a shadowy enigma

A sketch of the Great Old One showing a head

Like an octopus atop a scaled winged man

A strange dream occurred one night

Older than Tyre, the Sphinx and prideful Babylon

To spark the dreamer to decode and write

Of a strange language inscribed in the dream

"Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

 

Wilcox the dreamer came down with a malady

Taken back to his family home for care

When he recovered he had no memory

Of his travel or fever dreams

Uncannily they seemed the same

My uncle's notes and the dreamer's dreams

Both featured those two strange names

Dread Cthulhu and forgotten R'lyeh

Clues lie in religion and poem and art

From white-robed cults in faraway countries

To strange poetry that strikes terror into the heart

And the twisted painting 'Strange Landscapes'

Inspector Legrasse claimed a statue

Used to track down a wicked cult

Until today seen only by few

The odd image of Cthulhu

Made of a green-black stone

Shining from a thousand golden specks

A substance to geology unknown

Showing the Great Old One in all his unholy glory

The audience of scientists were intrigued

By the stone and the language inscribed upon it

But their attempts of translation left them fatigued

Until three together came up with the solution

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Or in English:

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming"

 

The inspector and his men traced the decryption

Down to New Orleans with a force of twenty

To a house marked with the inscription

From within voices chanted to the Great Old One

Eyes in the night

Wings in the dark

A pulsing mass of white