of the vast reef whose rim I had seen before. And when I saw that the reef was but the black basalt crown of a shocking eikon whose monstrous forehead now shown in the dim moonlight and whose vile hooves must paw the hellish ooze miles below, I shrieked and shrieked lest the hidden face rise above the waters, and lest the hidden eyes look at me after the slinking away of that leering and treacherous yellow moon. Fleeing this monstrous thing, he swims towards the sunken city: And to escape this relentless thing, I plunged gladly and unhesitantly into the stinking shallows where amidst weedy walls and sunken streets fat sea-worms feast upon the world's dead. The speaker clearly prefers death instead of madness to this perceived greater-horror revealed in carven grandeur. The tale concludes without confirming whether this was the ending of the speaker's life or not. Publication history Source: "What the Moon Brings" was first published in the National Amateur in May 1923. It was republished in The Doom that Came to Sarnath by Ballantine Books in 1971 (Vol. 45, no. 5) It was republished again in Miscellaneous Writings by Arkham House in 1995 (edited by S. T. Joshi). It was republished again in Shadows of Death by Del Rey Books in 2005. References External links Complete text Short stories by H. P. Lovecraft Fantasy short stories Works originally published in American magazines 1923 short stories