Poplars

Read "Poplars" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/440/poplars

This is a simple but beautiful poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS).  The opening stanza provides the central image:


Against the pale autumnal air,
The golden poplars burn and flare.


In the following stanzas, key nouns are repeated, as with "lamps" in the second and fifth stanzas:


And golden lamps are lit for me,
Deep in the vaults of memory.

And in my heart the lamps illume
A queenly couch of love and doom,


The phrase "golden lamps" from the second stanza is a direct derivation from "golden poplars" in the first stanza, and this repetition of key images really gives "Poplars" a musical flow that is impressive for such a short work.