Thursday, October 15, 2020

Silent Hour

Read "Silent Hour" at The Eldritch Dark:


The version of this poem by Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) at The Eldritch Dark has a significant typo in line five, which should read: "Thy patient fingers press".

The poem makes use of evocative metaphors for memories of a beloved, and a hoped-for reunion with the same.  Some of these have definite erotic overtones:


Full-tided love draws back in every vein
Like a dark sea through caverns refluent;
But deepens still the fountains of its power.


If the lines quoted above have a distinctly male character, the poem ends with a similar suggestion of the female:


Till all the silence opens into flower—
Till some great rose of wonder and surprise
In secret, sudden bloom
With magic fragrance overbrims the room.


I don't consider "Silent Hour" to be among CAS' best poems, and yet it delivers a lingering touch of sensuality that is skillfully handled.   

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