Brumal

Read "Brumal" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/65/brumal

This poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) is melancholy, but not without a sense of reward. The opening lines are bleak:


Life is a tale half told,
Love is a broken song;
Beauty, besought so long
Is a legend lost and old.


Despite that sombre beginning, CAS ends the work on a slightly more uplifting note:


I recall thy fugitive grace,
And sigh for thy hair's lost gold.


The acknowledgement that memories of better times can partially compensate for a dismal present is encouraging, and gives "Brumal" a brighter, warmer conclusion than the title alone might suggest.