G'day!

I'm working towards a book of essays about Clark Ashton Smith's poetry. I would like to write some based on what some you would like to see addressed. That is, what ideas for possible essays would you like to see tackled, providing they are about the poetry?

Any help that you can give me is appreciated.

ciao!

Phillip

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

*Visit my homepage: [voleboy.freewebpages.org]

I'd like to see his influences examined in detail: Sterling, Baudelaire, et al. As a love-poet, how much did he owe to Sappho? And maybe you could relate the themes he used in his poems to the themes he used in his stories, because I don't think CAS can be viewed simply as a poet. What emphases were different and how successfully did he treat his themes in the two literary realms? Also, what psychological needs was he seeking to meet in his poetry? It seems to me it partly fulfilled the rôle of an ivory tower he could climb into for respite from modernity.

So, you're arguing that we need to see more source criticism, right? That could be interesting.

As for comparative studies with his fiction, my focus both professional and personal is upon verse, so that such studies are exceedingly unlikely. I'll be leaving them to better placed individuals, or more interested ones.

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

*Visit my homepage: [voleboy.freewebpages.org]

Quote:

So, you're arguing that we need to see more source criticism, right?

Yes. We can never have too much source criticism.

Comparing and contrasting his poetry with HPL's would be interesting too, and what about full translations of his French and Spanish poems too?

Translations of his poems are a bit too daunting for even one as me...

Comparative studies would be interesting; also with Sterling, and other similar writers, no?

In addition to Ghoti23's excellent suggestions, I would also like to see overviews of his various subject matters -- the love poems, the nature lyrics, the cosmic poetry, etc. Something along the lines of your excellent piece on the beloved in CAS's love poetry.

Also, I must agree with Ghoti23 that mention of CAS's fiction cannot be omitted in a discussion of his verse, since the fiction IMO is a fruit on his poetical tree. But I think it would not take up that much space, if the focus is on the verse.