Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Sonnets of the Seasons (Spring)

There are three "Sonnets of the Seasons" grouped together in The Complete Poetry and Translations of Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) from Hippocampus Press, and I'll be considering them one-by-one in individual blog posts.

None of these poems were published during CAS' lifetime, nor are they available on The Eldritch Dark, so here is the first of the three sonnets:


O Spring, not only in the awakened earth,
          The leafing forests and the greening hills
          The gladsome impulse generously thrills.
The joy of buds unfolding and the birth
Of grasses, and the happiness and mirth
          Of all the newly freed and singing rills
          Whose rhythmic voices gyving Winter stills
Rouse in my breast where lately brumal dearth
Held sway.  O wakened forces of the Spring,
          Thy strength and aspiration towards the sun
          Thine exultation and joy are mine.
Oh! would that, as the streamlets, I might sing,
Would that my praising with the lark's were one!
Then might I voice the joyance that is thine!



This is a fairly straightforward nature poem, infused with some rich language and a vibrant embrace of the spring season.  As with some previous nature poems from CAS that I have read, this one seems to incorporate the author's own voice:


Oh! would that, as the streamlets, I might sing,
Would that my praising with the lark's were one!
Then might I voice the joyance that is thine!


Considering that these lines were written by the teenaged CAS, one can read them as the yearning of the young poet for the skill to create verses worthy of his own ambitions.  That's a powerful sentiment in one so young, and a key to understanding the role that poetry played in the life of Clark Ashton Smith.


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