http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/22/amor-autumnalis
This is a poem that Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) did not publish in his lifetime, and it surprises me that he did include it in the omnibus Selected Poems (1971). I think it's quite a powerful poem, and enhanced by an unusual technical device that lends it a rich aural palette.
In the opening lines, he employs adjectival phrases that create a non-rhyming refrain:
- unfading autumn
- unconsuming leaves
- untended flowers
- flown summer
- roseless gardens
In the closing lines, he switches to using color references as a refrain:
- sanguine-colored vine
- golden woods and hills
- pools of lucid bronze
- black opal
- amber willows
- dreamful mauve
The poem has seventeen lines, and the two sections delineated above are each composed of eight lines, with the dividing middle line ("In a quiet valley-land") providing a natural pause in the reading of the whole.
I think "Amor Autumnalis" represents CAS' work at its best, using thoughtful poetic technique and the riches of the English language to express exquisite ideas and images.
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