Read "A Sierran Sunrise" at The Eldritch Dark:
Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) dealt with this same theme in his poem "The Sunrise" which I discussed in an earlier blog post. However, I think this current poem "A Sierran Sunrise" has a much more interesting take on the subject, since here we are presented with the idea of Nature as an artist:
The painting of the masterpiece behold
That every morn, before our careless eye,
Nature portrays, in crimson and in gold,
Upon the canvas of the earth and sky.
I think this is a powerful theme, since it articulates a deep appreciation for the ongoing cycles of the natural world while not attributing those phenomenon to a theistic agency. My interpretation could be countered by a reading of the very last line:
Whence springs this dawn miraculous and grand.
One definition of the adjective "miraculous" does indeed imply divine intervention, but alternate definitions support a non-supernatural phenomenon, and I think it's clear that was CAS' intent with "A Sierran Sunrise".
The painting of the masterpiece behold
That every morn, before our careless eye,
Nature portrays, in crimson and in gold,
Upon the canvas of the earth and sky.
I think this is a powerful theme, since it articulates a deep appreciation for the ongoing cycles of the natural world while not attributing those phenomenon to a theistic agency. My interpretation could be countered by a reading of the very last line:
Whence springs this dawn miraculous and grand.
One definition of the adjective "miraculous" does indeed imply divine intervention, but alternate definitions support a non-supernatural phenomenon, and I think it's clear that was CAS' intent with "A Sierran Sunrise".
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