The City of the Titans

Read "The City of the Titans" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/91/the-city-of-the-titans

This is another poem by Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that references the Titans from Greek mythology.  This time around, he doesn't really touch on any specific names or events from the myths, but rather seems to invoke the Titans as emblematic of the fallen, those who once possessed greatness but have lost all claims upon it.

The closing triplet of the tercet that ends this sonnet is especially powerful:


The city dreamed in darkness evermore,
Pregnant with crypts of terrible strange lore
And doom-fraught arsenals in lampless keeps.


Verses like that are the very reason that I hold CAS in such awe for his poetic abilities.  The phrase "doom-fraught arsenals in lampless keeps" is brief, unambiguous, beautifully worded, and incredibly evocative of both mood and image.  Few writers have the ability to express so much with such economy.