Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Reincarnation



Another short poem this time around, so it's worth quoting the complete text:

When one for who a space has lived 'mong men
Some morn shall sudden pass beyond our ken,
Say not with sobs and tears that he is dead.
Say but that he to some new star is sped.

When I read "The Road of Pain" yesterday (see previous blog entry), I focused on the phrase "surcease or death", and the implication that there is perhaps something other than death at the end of the road.

So here we have the idea of reincarnation, and more specifically reincarnation out there in the wider cosmos, far beyond the limits of our native sphere.  Clark Ashton Smith is known for his cosmic outlook, and I suspect this short text is but a first taste of a theme that will become much more prominent in later poems.

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