The Nemesis of Suns

Read "The Nemesis of Suns" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/363/the-nemesis-of-suns

The personification of Night as the "nemesis of Suns" is quite gripping in this sonnet by Clark Ashton Smith (CAS).  The closing sestet is so powerful that it's worth repeating:


All gyres are held within the path unspanned
          Of Night's aeonian compass--loosely pent
                    As with the embrace of lethal-tightening weight;
All suns are grasped within the hollow hand
          Of Night, the godhead sole, omnipotent,
                    Whose other names are Nemesis and Fate.



Those last three lines are really powerful stuff, and the identification of Night as "the godhead sole" really speaks to the darker aspects of CAS' cosmic viewpoint.  What hope is there for humanity in a universe where all those life-giving suns are little more than playthings to be "torn or furled / By Night at will?"