Saturday, February 1, 2020

The Secret

Read "The Secret" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/489/the-secret


This is the sort of love poem (or a poem about love, at any rate) that is simple yet still a great showcase for Clark Ashton Smith's talents.  The short lines (most of them only three syllables) add a momentum to the reading that is not typical of his work, and yet the language and the imagery are not left wanting:



Lost and far,
Like a forest-folded bloom
Lulled above
Its own perfume;



The last three lines of the stanza quoted above create a beautiful portrait of an aromatic plant seduced by its vey own fragrance, an image that only CAS could bestow upon his readers.

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