Thursday, August 22, 2019

Autumnal

Read "Autumnal" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/41/autumnal

I like the use of repeated words and images in this poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS), creating a clear linkage between the first and last stanzas.  In the opening quatrain, we have:


Blossom the mournful immortelles alone;
The fallen roses crumble, and are blown,


Then in the final verse, CAS re-visits the same theme:


And we have found, where fallen roses stir,
The immortelles that flower mournfully.


This refrain echoes the use of thematic passages in a piece of music, and reinforces the idea that CAS fully understood the link between music and poetry, and used that knowledge as one of the foundational building blocks of his versifying.

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