Horror Story Review: "The White Ship" by H. P. Lovecraft

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In this Dream Cycle story, the narrator Basil Elton tends the same lighthouse his father and grandfather did. Fewer ships come by now than did in their day, but the White Ship always comes from the South when the moon is full and high in the sky. Regardless of whether the sea is rough or smooth, the White Ship always glides smoothly in. Sometimes “at twilight the grey vapors of the horizon have parted to grant me glimpses of the ways beyond,” Elton tells the reader. “And sometimes at night the deep waters of the sea have grown clear and phosphorescent, to grant me glimpses of the ways beneath. And these glimpses have been often of the ways that were and the ways that might be, as of the ways that are; for the ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and dreams of Time.” One night, a bearded man on the White Ship beckons to Elton. He accepts, walking across the water to the ship on a bridge of moonbeams. They sail on to many places: the Land of Zar, where “dwell the all the dreams and thoughts of beauty that come to men once and then are forgotten”; Thalarion, “the City of a Thousand Wonders, wherein reside all those mysteries man has striven in vain to fathom”; and many more. They finally come to Sona-Nyl, the Land of Fancy. They walk to it from the ship on a bridge of moonbeams. Neither time nor space exists in Sona-Nyl, nor does suffering or death. Elton dwelt there for eons, until he became restless and decided, against the counsel of the bearded man, to search out the remote Cathuria, the Land of Hope. As one might expect from a Dream Dycle story, this is a lyric, dream-like little tale, Lovecraft’s archaic language adding rather than detracting from the atmosphere. It’s almost a child’s story. I was caught up in this one and enjoyed it. The full text of the story can be found below. _____ Title: “The White Ship” Author: H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) First published: in The United Amateur (Volume 19) #2, November 1919. written in 1919 Source: ISFDB *An earlier version of this review appeared on another site. It has been updated and expanded for its inclusion on myLot*