This is another poem unpublished in Clark Ashton Smith's (CAS) lifetime, and not available on The Eldritch Dark, so let's start with the text itself:
A thousand stars in the heavens blaze,
While sun and moon must hide their rays;
The glowing planets twinkle and gleam
While hidden in the sun's bright beam.
Unquenched they shine with a strange wild light
But paler, paler than the sun.
What a weird, unearthly sight
Is each land they shine upon!
Let them gleam, tis but for a time,
Soon shall come the sun sublime,
And shine out in all his light.
Having myself experienced a solar eclipse just about a year ago (August 21, 2017), CAS' description rings true to me, so I am assuming he also experienced an eclipse before writing this poem. His observations are not particularly unique, but the phrase "a strange wild light" sticks with me - that is a wonderful description of the unusual quality of light that occurred at the height of the eclipse that I experienced.
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