Warning

Read "Warning" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/635/warning

This poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) appeared in the October 1928 issue of Weird Tales magazine.  The poem seems perfect for the pages of The Unique Magazine, with a mix of mystery and the supernatural at its core.  There is a beautiful sense of menace woven throughout the work, as in these wonderful lines:


Beneath the closely woven grass,
The coiling syrt, more soft and deep
Than some divan where lovers sleep,
Is fain of all who wander there;


Who but CAS could make quicksand sound so appealing?

I also appreciate the siren-like sound at the heart of the poem's allure, "more sweet than conium is, / Or honey-blended cannabis".  The image that CAS paints of a deadly swamp drawing in the unwary is both deadly and irresistible, a combination that CAS handles with a grace all his own.