Thursday, August 1, 2019

Reclamation

Read "Reclamation" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/458/reclamation

This is a gloomy little number from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that brings us back to a theme he has explored before, that of the vanity of human ambition.  

In this particular poem, that theme seems to take on a more explicit metaphorical manifestation, beginning with the reference to "vision" in the second line.  The second stanza then opens with the word "Eyes", and at the very end of the poem we have "the staring blindness of the tomb."  

It's a simple metaphor for the larger theme that CAS is working with, but quite effective, and (so it seems to me) makes "Reclamation" a good candidate for introducing a newbie to the poetry of CAS: the poem is short, it is not difficult to make sense of, and the authentic voice of the creator rings true despite the brevity.

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