Dark Poems
Posted by:
MesMorial (IP Logged)
Date: 13 March, 2012 04:40AM
Hello everybody;
I am new here, although I am a browser of Clark Ashton Smith's poetry. My poetry is generally too warm/humane to be in the "eldritch" genre, but here is a small selection which (maybe) could.
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1. THE LAST DEMON
A land of foes! a desert of shadows
Drawn across the violet dunes and dotted
By the dismal tombs of demon-lords; spott’d
By the silent lakes, their haunted meadows
Confound the weary eyes of Time; this land
Is where the hero his final stand!
But fainter than the furthest grave, something
Stirs in hungry sands: the huge black titan
A ghost to the pallid moons that whiten:
Its savage face staring towards Nothing
As shooting stars ignite the scowl of Seth;
Behold! - The sky is weeping for His death!
EXPLANATION
A take on Egyptian myth, this piece describes the aftermath of a war. Over the desert sand of Time, the Underworld God Seth attempted to seize or attain “Heavenâ€. Ironically, His intention was to be purified or at least to transcend the short term universe. Thus He was a matyr, though He ended where He belonged.
2. WITCHES
I’ve known the feeling every night
Still stirring me in subtle ways,
At every whole or crescent phase
A wild witch enrobed in white:
Her dress is like the vivid dream
That wraps around my moral mind
And laps from it all will to bind
The rainbow red, or pale cream.
Her laughter lights a loving ease
Which wavers only when the wind
Invites the eye of he who sinned
To stare from low, in fouler tease...
And then, my senses seem to blaze
Ere watching as the candle licks
This crystal-laden crucifix,
I sweep aside Temptation’s trays
To dream of Autumn’s holy rays.
EXPLANATION
Self-explanatorily erotic.
3. LE SERPENT
The sands of Time will always sink;
The serpent turns its back on Truth;
Fear not for honour, love, or pain.
Bright memories begin to blink,
Since not AGAIN will ye have youth:
The sands of Time will always sink;
Let lessons, longings, wane or wink;
Regret them not, remain aloof;
Fear not for honour, love, or pain.
The purpose of your pain’s to think;
To seek Salvation’s scant behoof;
The sands of Time will always sink;
Let landscapes in the silence slink:
You bask below this shadeless roof;
Fear not for honour, love, or pain.
Thus solitude must be your drink,
And sorrow’s shadow, your shaduf;
The sands of Time will always sink;
Fear not for honour, love, or pain.
EXPLANATION
Half-villanelle. Experience of a serpent (metaphor for Satan or Luciferian). Everything becomes the sand of Time, so nothing matters. Someone who is bored of life will expect more of the same (sand), so existence is a dry desert. Moreover, desire for things we cannot have (e.g. love) creates "heat" from which we must shelter. Line 10 suggests that emotional pain is the impetus for intellectual/left-handed spiritual endeavour. Solitude is a drink in that it cools and refreshes after experience (it also allows one to sleep). "Shaduf" is an irrigation device; "sorrow's shadow" captures solitude (since a person who "sheds sorrow/darkness" (consider shedding light (or snake-skin!) will scare people away). All in all, the poem speaks of the rejection of human endeavour.