Sympathetic Horror

Clark Ashton Smith

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

"From this bizarre and livid sky,
Tormented like your doom and mine,
On your void spirit passing by,
What thoughts descend, O libertine ?"

—Athirst for mortal things unsung
In shadowy realms of lone surmise,
I will not whine like Ovid, flung
From out the Latin paradise.

Skies torn like strands of ocean-streams,
In you is mirrored all my pride!
Your slow, enormous clouds abide

The dolent hearses of my dreams;
Your glimmers mock with fluctuant lights
The hell wherein my heart delights.

Printed from: www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/563
Printed on: March 28, 2024