Friday, July 27, 2018

A White Rose



Today's poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) is almost haiku-like in presenting an image of something beautiful and ephemeral:

Emblem of beauty thou shouldst be,
          That of all roses art most fair;
One day thou bloomest regally,
          Upon the morrow all is bare.

The brief lifespan of something beautiful seems like natural territory for CAS given what I know of his outlook and inclinations.  

CAS' poetry is often compared to that of John Keats (among others), and I can't help but think of some lines from Keats' "The Day is Gone":

Faded the flower and all its budded charms, 
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes, 
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms, 
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise...

The evocation of intense beauty in the very process of disappearing from sight seems thematically simpatico with CAS' "A White Rose".

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