Friday, March 1, 2019

To the Sun


Read "To the Sun" at The Eldritch Dark:


This is one of those poems by Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that I feel I should really like, but after several readings, it leaves me cold.  It's hard to pin down exactly why this poem feels so pedestrian, other than noting the awkwardness of many of the passages, such as in this example:


Athirst and unfed shall they be
When the springs of thy strength are dust
And thy fields of light are black with dearth.


There's nothing wrong there with the vocabulary, the pacing, or the imagery.  The issue is that it feels uninspired, and that is an uncommon occurrence in my experience of CAS' poetry.

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