The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft
The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft Written November 1919
I am Basil Elton, keeper of the North Point light that my father and grandfather
kept before me. Far from the shore stands the gray lighthouse, above sunken
slimy rocks that are seen when the tide is low, but unseen when the tide is
high. Past that beacon for a century have swept the majestic barques of the
seven seas. In the days of my grandfather there were many; in the days of my
father not so many; and now there are so few that I sometimes feel strangely
alone, as though I were the last man on our planet.
From far shores came those white-sailed argosies of old; from far Eastern shores
where warm suns shine and sweet odors linger about strange gardens and gay
temples. The old captains of the sea came often to my grandfather and told him
of these things which in turn he told to my father, and my father told to me in
the long autumn evenings when the wind howled eerily from the East. And I have
read more of these things, and of many things besides, in the books men gave me
when I was young and filled with wonder.
But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret
lore of ocean. Blue, green, gray, white or black; smooth, ruffled, or
mountainous; that ocean is not silent. All my days have I watched it and
listened to it, and I know it well. At first it told to me only the plain little
tales of calm beaches and near ports, but with the years it grew more friendly
and spoke of other things; of things more strange and more distant in space and
time. Sometimes at twilight the gray vapors of the horizon have parted to grant
me glimpses of the ways beyond; 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 as often of the ways that were and the
ways that might be, as of the ways that are; for ocean is more ancient than the
mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.
Out of the South it was that the White Ship used to come when the moon was full
and high in the heavens. Out of the South it would glide very smoothly and
silently over the sea. And whether the sea was rough or calm, and whether the
wind was friendly or adverse, it would always glide smoothly and silently, its
sails distant and its long strange tiers of oars moving rhythmically. One night
I espied upon the deck a man, bearded and robed, and he seemed to beckon me to
embark for far unknown shores. Many times afterward I saw him under the full
moon, and never did he beckon me.
Very brightly did the moon shine on the night I answered the call, and I walked
out over the waters to the White Ship on a bridge of moonbeams. The man who had
beckoned now spoke a welcome to me in a soft language I seemed to know well, and
the hours were filled with soft songs of the oarsmen as we glided away into a
mysterious South, golden with the glow of that full, mellow moon.
And when the day dawned, rosy and effulgent, I beheld the green shore of far
lands, bright and beautiful, and to me unknown. Up from the sea rose lordly
terraces of verdure, tree-studded, and shewing here and there the gleaming white
roofs and colonnades of strange temples. As we drew nearer the green shore the
bearded man told me of that land, the land of Zar, where dwell all the dreams
and thoughts of beauty that come to men once and then are forgotten. And when I
looked upon the terraces again I saw that what he said was true, for among the
sights before me were many things I had once seen through the mists beyond the
horizon and in the phosphorescent depths of ocean. There too were forms and
fantasies more splendid than any I had ever known; the visions of young poets
who died in want before the world could learn of what they had seen and dreamed.
But we did not set foot upon the sloping meadows of Zar, for it is told that he
who treads them may nevermore return to his native shore.
As the White Ship sailed silently away from the templed terraces of Zar, we
beheld on the distant horizon ahead the spires of a mighty city; and the bearded
man said to me, “This is Thalarion, the City of a Thousand Wonders, wherein
reside all those mysteries that man has striven in vain to fathom.” And I looked
again, at closer range, and saw that the city was greater than any city I had
known or dreamed of before. Into the sky the spires of its temples reached, so
that no man might behold their peaks; and far back beyond the horizon stretched
the grim, gray walls, over which one might spy only a few roofs, weird and
ominous, yet adorned with rich friezes and alluring sculptures. I yearned
mightily to enter this fascinating yet repellent city, and besought the bearded
man to land me at the stone pier by the huge carven gate Akariel; but he gently
denied my wish, saying, “Into Thalarion, the City of a Thousand Wonders, many
have passed but none returned. Therein walk only daemons and mad things that are
no longer men, and the streets are white with the unburied bones of those who
have looked upon the eidolon Lathi, that reigns over the city.” So the White
Ship sailed on past the walls of Thalarion, and followed for many days a
southward-flying bird, whose glossy plumage matched the sky out of which it had
appeared.
Then came we to a pleasant coast gay with blossoms of every hue, where as far
inland as we could see basked lovely groves and radiant arbors beneath a
meridian sun. From bowers beyond our view came bursts of song and snatches of
lyric harmony, interspersed with faint laughter so delicious that I urged the
rowers onward in my eagerness to reach the scene. And the bearded man spoke no
word, but watched me as we approached the lily-lined shore. Suddenly a wind
blowing from over the flowery meadows and leafy woods brought a scent at which I
trembled. The wind grew stronger, and the air was filled with the lethal,
charnel odor of plague-stricken towns and uncovered cemeteries. And as we sailed
madly away from that damnable coast the bearded man spoke at last, saying, “This
is Xura, the Land of Pleasures Unattained.”
So once more the White Ship followed the bird of heaven, over warm blessed seas
fanned by caressing, aromatic breezes. Day after day and night after night did
we sail, and when the moon was full we would listen to soft songs of the
oarsmen, sweet as on that distant night when we sailed away from my far native
land. And it was by moonlight that we anchored at last in the harbor of
Sona-Nyl, which is guarded by twin headlands of crystal that rise from the sea
and meet in a resplendent arch. This is the Land of Fancy, and we walked to the
verdant shore upon a golden bridge of moonbeams.
In the Land of Sona-Nyl there is neither time nor space, neither suffering nor
death; and there I dwelt for many aeons. Green are the groves and pastures,
bright and fragrant the flowers, blue and musical the streams, clear and cool
the fountains, and stately and gorgeous the temples, castles, and cities of
Sona-Nyl. Of that land there is no bound, for beyond each vista of beauty rises
another more beautiful. Over the countryside and amidst the splendor of cities
can move at will the happy folk, of whom all are gifted with unmarred grace and
unalloyed happiness. For the aeons that I dwelt there I wandered blissfully
through gardens where quaint pagodas peep from pleasing clumps of bushes, and
where the white walks are bordered with delicate blossoms. I climbed gentle
hills from whose summits I could see entrancing panoramas of loveliness, with
steepled towns nestling in verdant valleys, and with the golden domes of
gigantic cities glittering on the infinitely distant horizon. And I viewed by
moonlight the sparkling sea, the crystal headlands, and the placid harbor
wherein lay anchored the White Ship.
It was against the full moon one night in the immemorial year of Tharp that I
saw outlined the beckoning form of the celestial bird, and felt the first
stirrings of unrest. Then I spoke with the bearded man, and told him of my new
yearnings to depart for remote Cathuria, which no man hath seen, but which all
believe to lie beyond the basalt pillars of the West. It is the Land of Hope,
and in it shine the perfect ideals of all that we know elsewhere; or at least so
men relate. But the bearded man said to me, “Beware of those perilous seas
wherein men say Cathuria lies. In Sona-Nyl there is no pain or death, but who
can tell what lies beyond the basalt pillars of the West?” Natheless at the next
full moon I boarded the White Ship, and with the reluctant bearded man left the
happy harbor for untraveled seas.
And the bird of heaven flew before, and led us toward the basalt pillars of the
West, but this time the oarsmen sang no soft songs under the full moon. In my
mind I would often picture the unknown Land of Cathuria with its splendid groves
and palaces, and would wonder what new delights there awaited me. “Cathuria,” I
would say to myself, “is the abode of gods and the land of unnumbered cities of
gold. Its forests are of aloe and sandalwood, even as the fragrant groves of
Camorin, and among the trees flutter gay birds sweet with song. On the green and
flowery mountains of Cathuria stand temples of pink marble, rich with carven and
painted glories, and having in their courtyards cool fountains of silver, where
purr with ravishing music the scented waters that come from the grotto-born
river Narg. And the cities of Cathuria are cinctured with golden walls, and
their pavements also are of gold. In the gardens of these cities are strange
orchids, and perfumed lakes whose beds are of coral and amber. At night the
streets and the gardens are lit with gay lanthorns fashioned from the
three-colored shell of the tortoise, and here resound the soft notes of the
singer and the lutanist. And the houses of the cities of Cathuria are all
palaces, each built over a fragrant canal bearing the waters of the sacred Narg.
Of marble and porphyry are the houses, and roofed with glittering gold that
reflects the rays of the sun and enhances the splendor of the cities as blissful
gods view them from the distant peaks. Fairest of all is the palace of the great
monarch Dorieb, whom some say to be a demi-god and others a god. High is the
palace of Dorieb, and many are the turrets of marble upon its walls. In its wide
halls many multitudes assemble, and here hang the trophies of the ages. And the
roof is of pure gold, set upon tall pillars of ruby and azure, and having such
carven figures of gods and heroes that he who looks up to those heights seems to
gaze upon the living Olympus. And the floor of the palace is of glass, under
which flow the cunningly lighted waters of the Narg, gay with gaudy fish not
known beyond the bounds of lovely Cathuria.”
Thus would I speak to myself of Cathuria, but ever would the bearded man warn me
to turn back to the happy shore of Sona-Nyl; for Sona-Nyl is known of men, while
none hath ever beheld Cathuria.
And on the thirty-first day that we followed the bird, we beheld the basalt
pillars of the West. Shrouded in mist they were, so that no man might peer
beyond them or see their summits — which indeed some say reach even to the
heavens. And the bearded man again implored me to turn back, but I heeded him
not; for from the mists beyond the basalt pillars I fancied there came the notes
of singers and lutanists; sweeter than the sweetest songs of Sona-Nyl, and
sounding mine own praises; the praises of me, who had voyaged far from the full
moon and dwelt in the Land of Fancy. So to the sound of melody the White Ship
sailed into the mist betwixt the basalt pillars of the West. And when the music
ceased and the mist lifted, we beheld not the Land of Cathuria, but a
swift-rushing resistless sea, over which our helpless barque was borne toward
some unknown goal. Soon to our ears came the distant thunder of falling waters,
and to our eyes appeared on the far horizon ahead the titanic spray of a
monstrous cataract, wherein the oceans of the world drop down to abysmal
nothingness. Then did the bearded man say to me, with tears on his cheek, “We
have rejected the beautiful Land of Sona-Nyl, which we may never behold again.
The gods are greater than men, and they have conquered.” And I closed my eyes
before the crash that I knew would come, shutting out the sight of the celestial
bird which flapped its mocking blue wings over the brink of the torrent.
Out of that crash came darkness, and I heard the shrieking of men and of things
which were not men. From the East tempestuous winds arose, and chilled me as I
crouched on the slab of damp stone which had risen beneath my feet. Then as I
heard another crash I opened my eyes and beheld myself upon the platform of that
lighthouse whence I had sailed so many aeons ago. In the darkness below there
loomed the vast blurred outlines of a vessel breaking up on the cruel rocks, and
as I glanced out over the waste I saw that the light had failed for the first
time since my grandfather had assumed its care.
And in the later watches of the night, when I went within the tower, I saw on
the wall a calendar which still remained as when I had left it at the hour I
sailed away. With the dawn I descended the tower and looked for wreckage upon
the rocks, but what I found was only this: a strange dead bird whose hue was as
of the azure sky, and a single shattered spar, of a whiteness greater than that
of the wave-tips or of the mountain snow.
And thereafter the ocean told me its secrets no more; and though many times
since has the moon shone full and high in the heavens, the White Ship from the
South came never again.