Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Ineffability

Read "Ineffability" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/263/ineffability

For a writer such as Clark Ashton Smith (CAS), who was often focused on the grim inevitabilities of human life and ambition, this poem "Ineffability" strikes an odd note of exultation from within the cacophony:


Too readily our lips repine
For splendor lost and beauty flown:
Our speech is made of earthly moan
And not the praise of things divine.


Although the poem laments our ability to rise above our "deepest dolor", it nonetheless provides something of a hopeful (if obscure) roadmap pointing towards better outcomes in the closing lines: "... joy requires a stronger lute / Of high unshatterable string."

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