Exorcism

Read "Exorcism" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/172/exorcism

At the title suggests, this poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) is swirling with tendrils of the supernatural:


The mists of the valley reach with wavering, slow,
Malignant arms from pine to pine, and climb the hill
As fatal memories climb
To assail some heart benighted and bewitched. . . .


Compared to some of the more humdrum love poems CAS was writing around the same time (late 1920's), "Exorcism" plays to his particular strengths, incorporating dark romance with ghostly metaphors.  

This poem seems like it would have been right at home in the pages of Weird Tales magazine, making me wonder if CAS ever submitted it to that publication (although we do know for certain that it never appeared in those pages).