Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Sanctuary

Here's another poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that was unpublished in his lifetime, and is not available on The Eldritch Dark, so here's the complete text:


Ah, love! To find for me and thee
A little space, alone,
Some vale of love and reverie 
Where time unknowing and unknown 
Shall pass, but not for thee and me.

Ah! love, in lands of Otherwhere,
To prove the afternoon
Of suns that cede the myrtled air
To Venus and the semilune!
Ah, love, in lands of Otherwhere.


This is a fairly short and simple love poem, but I like the repetition of the first and last lines of each stanza (partial repetition in the first stanza; almost exact repetition in the second stanza).  

CAS' didn't often use repetition in his poetry, but it's a fairly common technique with formal metrical verse, and in this case I think it lends "Sanctuary" a musical reading that benefits from the poem's short length.

1 comment:

  1. Normally I prefer his love poems when they simultaneously speak of cosmic, morbid, or phantastic themes, but this one really stands out from his comparatively mundane love poems with its musical quality. I sang this to myself from time to time because it was so catchy! I'm no expert on poetry, but I don't recall so many CAS poems that one could potentially sing.

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