Memory - H.P. Lovecraft

"Memory" is a flash fiction short story by American horror and science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1919 and published in May 1923 in The National Amateur.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Memory by h peler of craft.In the valley of this the occurs wading
moon shines thinly, tearing a pathfor its light with female horns, through
the leafal foliage of a great uber'strade, and within the depths of the
valley where the light reaches knot moonforms not meant to be peld. Rank

(00:22):
is a herbage on each slope,where we well vines and creeping pounds crawled
amidst the stones of wind palaces,twining tightly about broken columns and strange monoliths,
and heaving up marble pavements played byforgotten hands, and in trees that
grow gigantic in crumbling cold yards,deep little apes, while in and out

(00:46):
of deep treasure vault with potent serpentsand scaly things without a name. Vast
are the stones which sleep beneath coverletsof denk, moss and mighty were the
walls from which they fell. Forall time did their builders erect them,
And in sooth they yet served nobly. For beneath them the gray toad makes

(01:07):
his habitation. At the very bottomof the valley lies the river Tharm,
whose waters are slimy and filled withwheat from hidden springs it rises, and
to subterranean grottos it flows, sothat the demon of the valley knows not
white waters are red, not whitherthey are bound. The genie that harms

(01:30):
the moonbeams spake to the demon ofthe valley, saying, I am old,
and forget much. Tell me thedeeds and aspect the name of them
who built these things of stone.And the demon replied, I am memory
and the wise in law of thepast. But I too am old.

(01:52):
These things were like the waters ofthe river tharm, not to be understood.
Their deeds I recall, not forthey were, but of the moment.
The respect I recallingly it was liketo that of the little apes in
the trees. The name I recallclearly fired rhyme with that of the river.
These wings of yesterday were called man. So the genie flew back to

(02:16):
the thin horned moon, and thedemon looked intently at a little agged in
the tree that grew in a crumblingcourtyard. Enough memory