Saturday, November 16, 2019

Amor Aeternalis

Read "Amor Aeternalis" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/21/amor-aeternalis

The title of this sonnet from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) is Latin for "eternal love". Although these lines certainly express a bitter tone, it's hard not to enjoy the pure poetry at work here, especially in the closing sestet:


Away! I know the weariness and fever
Kisses compounded of the world's old dust
With fire that feeds the seventh hell for ever!
The grave shall keep a gentler couch than thine,
Though round my heart the roots of nettles twine,
Wreathed in the ancient attitude of lust.


If there was ever a true poetry that emerged from the end of a relationship gone wrong, this work is certainly it!

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