What the Moon Brings- H.P. Lovecraft

Although this story was enjoyable because it was written beautifully, it was a little hard to understand because of how poetic and abstract. I though that it was really impressive how Lovecraft creates really vivid visuals with great detail describing a surreal dreamlike atmosphere. I could literally picture what the beach looked like at night, the moon and all the surroundings. I always have very vivid dreams that I try describing to people but I feel like they could never picture it like I do. Lovecraft does and excellent job of making the reader experience his world along side him. The narrator never really identifies himself, but he takes the reader on a mysterious journey with him as he recalls memories and feelings about a summer night. He talks about walking through a garden and as he goes further, the scene gets creepier and more disturbing because he discovers that the garden has no end to it. Then he sees these lotos-faces and wants to know their secrets but the moon scares them as well as himself. Next the ocean parts revealing some kind of city of death. This is where Lovecraft gets ridiculously visual, he describes the city as being a place where all the people in the world come to die. The grossest description was when he talks about the smell of all the rotting flesh from all the grave yards. In the end all this sorrow and pain is too much for him to take, so he ends up plunging himself into the streets to kill himself and be with the rest of the world's dead. Even though this story was really graphic about death I though the way it was worded was fantastic. Also the concept of the afterlife being this horrible, acid trip garden of death by the beach was so original and unforgettable.