Autumn Dew

Here is another poem not published in Clark Ashton Smith's lifetime, and not available on The Eldritch Dark, so let's start with the text itself:


Amid the autumn grasses sere and dead 
        The lucent dewdrops glow and shine.
Are they the tears by elves and fairies shed
          In sorrow for the year's decline?


Just four lines, and a fairly simple idea, but I'm writing this blog post in August in Seattle, during the dry days of summer when the grass has all turned brown.  I like the little bit of magic that CAS has associated with dewdrops on "grasses sere and dead" as he imagines their connection to creatures of myth and fable.  A modest poem, but evidence that CAS is an artist of broader scope than his "fantastic" reputation suggests.