Desolation

Clark Ashton Smith

It seems to me that I have lived alone—
Alone, as one that liveth in a dream:
As light on coldest marble, or the gleam
Of moons eternal on a land of stone,
The days have been to me. I have but known
The silence of Thulean lands extreme—
A silence all-attending and supreme
As is the sea's enormous monotone.
Upon the waste no palmed mirages are,
But strange chimeras roam the steely light,
And cold parhelia hang on hilt and scaur
Where flowers of frost alone have bloomed. . . . I crave
The friendly clasp of finite arms, to save
My spirit from the ravening Infinite.

Printed from: www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/126
Printed on: March 29, 2024