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    The Star-Treader and other poems
    The Star-Treader and other poems
    The Star-Treader and other poems
    Ebook145 pages56 minutes

    The Star-Treader and other poems

    By Clark Ashton Smith

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateMay 1, 2010

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      Book preview

      The Star-Treader and other poems - Clark Ashton Smith

      Project Gutenberg's The Star-Treader and other poems, by Clark Ashton Smith

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Star-Treader and other poems

      Author: Clark Ashton Smith

      Release Date: December 25, 2011 [EBook #38410]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-TREADER AND OTHER POEMS ***

      Produced by David Starner, Matthew Wheaton and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

      THE STAR-TREADER AND OTHER POEMS

      BY

      CLARK ASHTON SMITH

      THE STAR-TREADER AND OTHER POEMS

      BY

      CLARK ASHTON SMITH

      A. M. ROBERTSON

      STOCKTON STREET AT UNION SQUARE

      SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

      MCMXII

      COPYRIGHT 1912

      BY

      A. M. ROBERTSON

      Philopolis Press

      San Francisco

      TO MY MOTHER

      CONTENTS

      Page

      NERO 1

      CHANT TO SIRIUS 5

      THE STAR-TREADER 6

      THE MORNING POOL 11

      THE NIGHT FOREST 12

      THE MAD WIND 14

      SONG TO OBLIVION 15

      MEDUSA 16

      ODE TO THE ABYSS 18

      THE SOUL OF THE SEA 21

      THE BUTTERFLY 22

      THE PRICE 26

      THE MYSTIC MEANING 27

      ODE TO MUSIC 28

      THE LAST NIGHT 31

      ODE ON IMAGINATION 32

      THE WIND AND THE MOON 35

      LAMENT OF THE STARS 36

      THE MAZE OF SLEEP 39

      THE WINDS 40

      THE MASQUE OF FORSAKEN GODS 42

      A SUNSET 49

      THE CLOUD-ISLANDS 50

      THE SNOW-BLOSSOMS 52

      THE SUMMER MOON 53

      THE RETURN OF HYPERION 54

      LETHE 55

      ATLANTIS 56

      THE UNREVEALED 57

      THE ELDRITCH DARK 58

      THE CHERRY-SNOWS 59

      FAIRY LANTERNS 60

      NIRVANA 61

      THE NEMESIS OF SUNS 62

      WHITE DEATH 63

      RETROSPECT AND FORECAST 64

      SHADOW OF NIGHTMARE 65

      THE SONG OF A COMET 66

      THE RETRIBUTION 69

      TO THE DARKNESS 70

      A DREAM OF BEAUTY 72

      THE DREAM-BRIDGE 73

      A LIVE-OAK LEAF 74

      PINE NEEDLES 75

      TO THE SUN 76

      THE FUGITIVES 78

      AVERTED MALEFICE 79

      THE MEDUSA OF THE SKIES 80

      A DEAD CITY 81

      THE SONG OF THE STARS 82

      COPAN 85

      A SONG OF DREAMS 86

      THE BALANCE 88

      SATURN 89

      FINIS 99

      NERO

      This Rome, that was the toil of many men,

      The consummation of laborious years—

      Fulfilment's crown to visions of the dead,

      And image of the wide desire of kings—

      Is made my darkling dream's effulgency,

      Fuel of vision, brief embodiment

      Of wandering will, and wastage of the strong

      Fierce ecstacy of one tremendous hour,

      When ages piled on ages were a flame

      To all the years behind, and years to be.

      Yet any sunset were as much as this,

      Save for the music forced by hands of fire

      From out the hard strait silences which bind

      Dull Matter's tongueless mouth—a music pierced

      With the tense voice of Life, more quick to cry

      Its agony—and save that I believed

      The radiance redder for the blood of men.

      Destruction hastens and intensifies

      The process that is Beauty, manifests

      Ranges of form unknown before, and gives

      Motion and voice and hue where otherwise

      Bleak inexpressiveness had leveled all.

      If one create, there is the lengthy toil;

      The laboured years and days league tow'rd an end

      Less than the measure of desire, mayhap,

      After the sure consuming of all strength,

      And strain of faculties that otherwhere

      Were loosed upon enjoyment; and at last

      Remains to one capacity nor power

      For pleasure in the thing that he hath made.

      But on destruction hangs but little use

      Of time or faculty, but all is turned

      To the one purpose, unobstructed, pure,

      Of sensuous rapture and observant joy;

      And from the intensities of death and ruin,

      One draws a heightened and completer life,

      And both extends and vindicates himself.

      I would I were a god, with all the scope

      Of attributes that are the essential core

      Of godhead, and its visibility.

      I am but emperor, and hold awhile

      The power to hasten Death upon his way,

      And cry a halt to worn and lagging Life

      For others, but for mine own self may not

      Delay the one, nor bid the other speed.

      There have been many kings, and they are dead,

      And have no power in death save what the wind

      Confers upon their blown and brainless dust

      To vex the eyeballs of posterity.

      But were I god, I would be overlord

      Of many kings, and were as breath to guide

      Their dust of destiny. And were I god,

      Exempt from this mortality which clogs

      Perception,

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