Sonnet lunaire

Here is a another unpublished poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that is not available on The Eldritch Dark.  The title translates to  "Lunar Sonnet".  Here is the complete text:


A pale moon kindles in my kingdom,
In mine olden kingdom, eloigned by the years:
From her clouds, across uncovering veils,
She illumines a wood perfumed by olden April.

From valleys green there wanders the old aroma
Of all the meads in their first flowerings;
And the south-wind has mingled with their most simple incense
The magisterial perfumes of sandalwood and amomum.

No leaf has flown from the woods of memory,
And there, no flower sheds even one last petal;
The moon of the past, inevitable and fabulous,

Is the same forever...But the love of olden days,
Magically, perfectly, must needs become
The face again kissed of my final love.


This paean to the memory of "mine olden kingdom" shimmers with an idealized pastorality  that makes me think of the poetry of John Keats.  I certainly have a weak spot for these sort of Arcadian yearnings, since they speak to an unavoidable regret at living in a world despoiled by human greed and indifference.