The Ghoul

This early poem by Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) was unpublished in his lifetime, and is not available on The Eldritch Dark, so here's the complete text:


He seemed, in implicit deeper night
          Of cypress, and the glade of cedarn gloom,
          A shadow come from catacomb or tomb,
The shade of midnight's subterranean might
Upthrown to strengthen darkness, and affright,
          Light's rear and remnant, and defer the doom
          Of phantoms--ere the haled dawn relume
The woodland fanes of Hecatean rite.

When half the conclave of the glooms was gone, 
          Gigantical I saw his form define,
                    and sombre on the sun's eternal ways;
And fantoms languid in the night's decline,
          Were, thinnest mist-ranks paling tow'rd the dawn,
                    O'er the black tarns of his abhorrent gaze.


CAS is sometimes accused of using a vocabulary that leans towards the archaic and the obscure.  In general, I disagree with that assessment, since it seeks to deny the rich possibilities of the English language, a vein that CAS usually exploited with outstanding results.

However, the "The Ghoul" is a case where CAS did indeed go a bit over the edge.  A phrase like "haled dawn relume" is just awkward, and despite the lush vocabulary, the image that CAS paints of this ghoul is rather vague at best.  So I can't say I'm surprised that CAS chose not to publish these particular lines.