Alchemy of Sorrow

Clark Ashton Smith

(Translated "from the French of Charles Pierre Baudelaire")

One with his fervor shall inform
The world, and one with all his sorrow:
One sees a glad, unsetting morrow,
One hears the whisper of the worm.

Hermes unknown, whose hand assists
My toil, and fills my dreams with fear,
Through thee I am the mournful peer
Of Midas, first of alchemists.

Fine gold to iron corruptible
I turn, and paradise to hell;
In winding-sheets of cloud and levin
A dear cadaver I descry;
And build upon the shores of heaven
Towering proud sarcophagi

Printed from: www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/11
Printed on: March 28, 2024