“To the Daemon Sublimity.” Written 1912. First published in Fire and Sleet and Candlelight, ed. August Derleth (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1961); reprinted in SP.
“Averted Malefice.” First published in ST; reprinted in SP.
“The Eldritch Dark.” First published in ST; reprinted in SP.
“Shadow of Nightmare.” First published in ST; reprinted in SP.
“Satan Unrepentant.” First published in OS; reprinted in EC and SP. CAS reports to GS (September 20, 1912) that “I think I’ll write another dramatic lyric, somewhat like ‘Nero’, with ‘Satan Unrepentant’ for the title and subject. I’ve only the vaguest idea as to what it’ll be like; but the subject seems rather promising” (SU 64). In sending the poem to GS on October 5, 1912, CAS noted that it “owes a certain deductible debt to John Milton, but is a somewhat more direct justification of the devil than ‘Paradise Lost.’ It might have created a row fifty years ago; but I hardly think it would to-day. Still, such a poem seems to me worth writing, for I’m not aware that anything exactly of the same kind has been done” (SU 66). GS commented: “Your ‘Satan Unrepentant’ seems to me a great and noble poem, and one which I would certainly force the magazines to refuse or accept” (letter to CAS, October 15, 1912; SU 68). Samuel Loveman spoke of the work enthusiastically: “If that poem doesn’t cause comment and an instant valuation of its high qualities, then ‘Prometheus Unbound’ is minor poetry and ‘Hyperion’ a failure. I measure it with these” (letter to CAS, March 17, 1918; manuscript, JHL). CAS states that he sent it to the English Review and the Atlantic Monthly (SU 76), where it must have been rejected. See Phillip A. Ellis, “Satan Speaks: A Reading of ‘Satan Unrepentant’” (FFT 132–37).
“The Ghoul.” The manuscript is dated February 16, 1913. First published in CPT.
“Desire of Vastness.” First published in EC; reprinted in SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on June 8, 1913. GS commented: “‘Desire of Vastness’ is big too, with a very good ending. Its octave is pretty obscure; I get it, but fear that few others will” (letter to CAS, June 22, 1913; SU 91). “Cyclopean” (line 14) is the adjectival form of Cyclops, the one-eyed giant encountered by Odysseus in the Odyssey (9.105f.).
“The Medusa of Despair.” First published in Town Talk No. 1113 (December 20, 1913); reprinted in OS, EC, and SP. CAS referred to the poem as “easily my most terrific [i.e., terrifying] sonnet” (letter to Samuel Loveman, August 1, 1913; manuscript, BL). He sent the poem, along with others, to GS on June 8, 1913. GS commented: “But biggest of all is this great ‘Medusa of Despair,’ a truly terrible sonnet. It’s clearer than most of your sonnets, too, and ends wonderfully” (letter to CAS, June 22, 1913; SU 91). Evidently GS submitted the poem to Town Talk (see SU 99).
“The Refuge of Beauty.” First published in OS; reprinted in EC and SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on June 8, 1913. GS commented: “‘The Refuge of Beauty’ is strong, though the clash between ‘escape’ and ‘Hate’ [l. 8] jars me” (letter to CAS, June 22, 1913; SU 91). Evidently, “Evade” in line 8 formerly read “Escape.” This poem was one of the first read by HPL when he came into contact with CAS in August 1922; he said of it: “If that ain’t supreme poesy, I’m a damned liar!” (letter to Maurice W. Moe, [September 1922]; Selected Letters 1911–1924 [Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1965], p. 163).
“The Harlot of the World.” First published in Town Talk (March 27, 1915); reprinted in OS, EC, and SP. Also published in Town Talk 1361 (September 21, 1918; “Golden Gate Literary Number”). CAS told GS (April 23, 1915) that he gave the poem to Town Talk, adding: “It was ‘impossible’, I suppose, for any of the respectable eastern publications” (SU 122).
“Memnon at Midnight.” Written before March 11, 1915. First published in OS; reprinted in EC and SP. For Memnon, see note 6 to “Prose Poems.” CAS sent the poem, with others, to GS on March 11, 1915. GS commented: “The poems you sent are all good . . . But I like best the sonnet ‘Memnon at Midnight.’ The sestet of that is sublime” (letter to CAS, April 14, 1915; SU 121).
“Love Malevolent.” Apparently first published in a magazine entitled Live Stories (1916); but this appearance has not been found; reprinted in EC. Also published in Step Ladder (May 1927). It may have been about this poem that CAS wrote: “I wonder if such poetic deviltry really offends people, in spite of their loud and disgusting pretence of being shocked. It seems to me that many must find it more entertaining than the ordinary banalities. . . . Apropos of some of the things in the sonnet, did you know that mandragora [line 9] was at one time in great repute as an aphrodisiac? I don’t remember to have seen any poetic reference to the fact. Few will get the full force of the lines in which I’ve made use of this” (CAS to Samuel Loveman, June 13, 1915; manuscript, BL).
“The Crucifixion of Eros.” First published in OS; reprinted in EC and SP. Also published in Step Ladder (May 1927). CAS sent the poem, along with others, to GS on June 15, 1916. GS commented (letter to CAS, June 17, 1916): “‘Belated Love’ and ‘The Crucifixion of Eros’ are beautiful and moving things” (SU 136). CAS noted to Loveman that the poem “is a good enough conception, but the phraseology seems flat, and the versification intolerably monotonous” (letter to Loveman, April 26, 1916; manuscript, BL). For the same general theme of love and death, see the story “The Disinterment of Venus” (1932).
“The Tears of Lilith.” The manuscript is dated April 26, 1917. First published in EC; reprinted in SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on June 17, 1917. GS commented: “I like ‘The Tears of Lilith’—a lovely lyric” (letter to CAS, July 8, 1917; SU 150). For Lilith, see note 4 to “The Holiness of Azédarac.”
“Requiescat in Pace.” Written before April 24, 1918. First published in Midland (May 1920); reprinted in EC and SP. The poem, as Scott Connors has established, is dedicated to Mamie Lowe Miller, who died in November 1917. Just before her death CAS wrote: “My best friend here [in Auburn] is very ill. She seems to have developed an attack of brain fever in addition to the consumption from which she has suffered for years. I don’t know whether she will live or not. If she dies, I think I will go mad with grief and a guilty conscience” (letter to GS, October 11, 1917; SU 141). CAS sent the poem to GS on April 24, 1918. GS noted: “This ‘Requiescat’ is very beautiful, I think” (letter to CAS, May 12, 1918; SU 161). CAS said of Miller: “Yes, her poetic tastes were congenial to mine. We agreed on all things but religion (she was a devout Christian) and I fear that she was made unhappy because I could not share her faith. To-day, strangely enough, is her birthday; and when I go out into the fields, after finishing this letter and certain others, all the flowers that she loved will torture and reproach me. The snow-drops and larkspurs I carried to her a year ago, will ask for her; and I shall have no answer” (letter to Samuel Loveman, April 27, 1918; manuscript, BL).
“The Motes.” First published in EC; reprinted in SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on March 16, 1922, saying that it “was written years ago” (SU 204). GS replied only that it was “very salable” (letter to CAS, April 8, 1922; SU 205). The poem, however, did not appear in a magazine.
“The Hashish Eater; or, The Apocalypse of Evil.” First published in EC; reprinted in SP. CAS began the poem in January 1920 and completed it on February 20, 1920. On that day, he wrote to SL: “It contains a wonderful menagerie, toward the end—partly ‘lifted’ from Flaubert, ‘The Faery [sic] Queene,’ and Sir John Maundeville, and partly of my own invention” (ms., BL). Only on March 29, 1920 did CAS send the poem to GS, writing: “The poem is imaginative, but, to me, the technique is so intolerable that I can take no pride or pleasure in it” (SU 181). GS commented: “‘The Hashish-Eater’ is indeed an amazing production. My friends will have none of it, claiming it reads like an extension of ‘A Wine of Wizardry.’ But I think there are many differences, and at any rate, it has more imagination in it than any other poem I know of. Like the ‘Wine,’ it fails on the aesthetic side, a thing that seems of small consequence in a poem of that nature” (letter to CAS, June 10, 1920; SU 183). CAS r
eplied: “I’m sorry that people think ‘The H. Eater’ a mere extension of ‘A Wine of Wizardry’. That’s no mean compliment, however—The ‘Wine of Wizardry’ has always seemed the ideal poem to me, as it did to Bierce. But the ground-plan of ‘The H. E.’ is really quite different. It owes nearly as much to [Flaubert’s] ‘The Temptation of Saint Anthony’ as to your poem” (letter to GS, July 10, 1920; SU 184). Many years later CAS wrote to S. J. Sackett: “. . . ‘The Hashish-Eater’, a much-misunderstood poem, . . . was intended as a study in the possibilities of cosmic consciousness, drawing heavily on myth and fable for its imagery. It is my own theory that if the infinite worlds of the cosmos were opened to human vision, the visionary would be overwhelmed by horror in the end, like the hero of this poem” (“Letters from Auburn,” Klarkash-Ton 1 [June 1988]: 22). For an exhaustively annotated edition of the poem, see The Hashish-Eater, ed. Donald Sidney-Fryer (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2008).
CAS wrote an “Argument of ‘The Hashish-Eater’” (first published in SS 245–26): “By some exaltation and expansion of cosmic consciousness, rather than a mere drug, used here as a symbol, the dreamer is carried to a height from which he beholds the strange and multiform scenes of existence in alien worlds; he maintains control of his visions, evokes and dismisses them at will. Then, in a state similar to the Buddhic plane, he is able to mingle with them and identify himself with their actors and objects. Still later, there is a transition in which the visions, and the monstrous and demonic forces he has evoked, begin to overpower him, to hurry him on helplessly, under circumstances of fright and panic. Armies of fiends and monsters, many drawn from the worlds of myth and fable, muster against him, pursue him through a terrible cosmos, and he is driven at last to the verge of a gulf into which falls in cataracts the ruin and rubble of the universe; a gulf from which the face of infinity itself, in all its awful blankness, beyond stars and worlds, beyond created things, even fiends and monsters, rises up to confront him.”
“A Psalm to the Best Beloved.” Written on April 29, 1921. First published in EC; reprinted in SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on May 18, 1921, remarking: “I . . . have been writing; but my compositions are all ‘personal’—some of them too much so, perhaps, for the official censors (the Anti-Vice Society!)” (SU 193). (CAS refers to the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, founded in 1873 by Anthony Comstock and headed at that time by his successor, John S. Sumner, which was vigilant in seeking the suppression of material considered obscene.) GS commented: “I like the ‘Psalm’ very much, and shall be glad to receive anything else of the kind . . . Don’t fear me as a ‘censor!’” (letter to CAS, May 19, 1921; SU 194). When the poem was published in EC, CAS remarked: “The poor old ‘Psalm’ on p. 126 [actually p. 121] played havoc with the village proprieties [i.e., in Auburn]. I don’t know so many brick-bats were coming my way, till lately . . . I suppose that particular poem was the only one that the villagers could even partially understand” (letter to GS, March 15, 1923; SU 229).
“The Witch with Eyes of Amber.” The manuscript is dated March 11, 1923. First published in the Auburn Journal (May 24, 1923); reprinted in Epos (Summer 1950), DC, and SP. CAS sent the poem to GS on March 15, 1923. GS commented: “. . . let me say I like ‘The Witch with Eyes of Amber’ immensely! A most luring and imaginative thing! I should think Mencken would fall on it with a whoop. Anyway, Poe would, were he now the editor of ‘Smart Set’” (letter to CAS, April 6, 1923; SU 230). If the poem was submitted to H. L. Mencken for the Smart Set, it was rejected. CAS later submitted it, along with “On the Canyon-Side,” to William Rose Benét for the Saturday Review of Literature, but “apparently they were too strong for him” (letter to GS, July 21, 1924; SU 242).
“We Shall Meet.” The manuscript is dated March 10, 1923. First published in the Auburn Journal (April 26, 1923); reprinted in the Wanderer (May 1924), S, and SP. Original title: “At the Last.” CAS sent the poem to GS on March 15, 1923. GS commented: “Baudelaire (as translated) has nothing better than ‘We Shall Meet.’ I don’t like that ‘flaffing’ [l. 33], though—it seems an absurd word in itself. I’d keep off the ultra-obsolete” (letter to CAS, April 6, 1923; SU 230).
“On Re-reading Baudelaire.” First published in the Auburn Journal (December 13, 1923); reprinted in S (as “On Reading Baudelaire”) and SP. The poem apparently was written more than a year before CAS began his own translations of Les Fleurs du mal in the spring of 1925, so his “rereading” was probably done in English, perhaps in the translation of F. P. Sturm (1906).
“To George Sterling: A Valediction.” Written December 1926, following GS’s death on November 17, 1926. First published in the Overland Monthly (November 1927), an issue devoted to GS; reprinted in SP (as “A Valediction to George Sterling”). First title: “Memorial to George Sterling.”
“Anterior Life.” The first of three translations from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal printed here. This poem (a translation of “La Vie antérieure”) was first published in the Arkham Sampler (Autumn 1948); reprinted in S&P and SP.
“Hymn to Beauty.” A translation of “Hymne à la beauté.” First published in the Auburn Journal (September 10, 1925); reprinted in S, Weird Tales (June 1937), and SP.
“The Remorse of the Dead.” A translation of “Remords posthume.” First published in Measure (April 1925).
“Exorcism.” The manuscript is dated January 14, 1929. First published in Troubadour (February–March 1931); reprinted in SP.
“Nyctalops.” The manuscript is dated March 21, 1929. First published in Weird Tales (October 1929); reprinted in SP. Also published in The Laureate’s Wreath: An Anthology in Honor of Dr. Henry Meade Bland, Poet Laureate of California, ed. The Edwin Markham Poetry Society (San Jose: The Edwin Markham Poetry Society, 1934), and in Today’s Literature, ed. Dudley Chadwick Gordon, Vernon Rupert King, and William Whittingham Lyman (New York: American Book Co., 1935). The word nyctalops is a variant of nyctalopia, originally meaning night-blindness but later coming to mean the inability to see clearly except at night; it is in the latter sense that CAS uses the word. The title of the poem inspired the small-press journal Nyctalops (1970–83), edited by Harry O. Morris, Jr., and devoted to HPL, CAS, and other weird writers.
“Outlanders.” The manuscript is dated June 26, 1934. First published as a supplementary broadside accompanying Nero and Other Poems (Lakeport, FL: Futile Press, 1937); reprinted in Weird Tales (June 1938) and SP.
“Song of the Necromancer.” First published in Weird Tales (February 1937); reprinted in SP.
“To Howard Phillips Lovecraft.” The manuscript is dated March 31, 1937. First published in Weird Tales (July 1937); reprinted in HPL’s Marginalia, ed. August Derleth and Donald Wandrei (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1944), and SP. A poem written to HPL (1890–1937) sixteen days after his death.
“Madrigal of Memory.” Written on July 15, 1941. First published in Kaleidograph (January 1942); reprinted in SP.
“The Old Water-Wheel.” The manuscript is dated August 2, 1941. First published in Poetry (December 1942); reprinted in DC and SP.
“The Hill of Dionysus.” The manuscript is dated November 5, 1942. First published in HD; reprinted in SP. In Greek myth, Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele, and his worship was associated with intoxication, ecstasy, and even madness. The Hill of Dionysus was a real place, a favorite picnic spot in San Rafael, California for CAS, Eric Barker, and Madelynne Greene.
“If Winter Remain.” The manuscript is dated January 26, 1949. First published in SP.
“Amithaine.” The manuscript is dated October 21, 1950. First published in Different 7, no. 3 (Autumn 1951): 9; reprinted in DC. The name Amithaine is CAS’s invention. See Ronald S. Hilger, “Amithaigne,” Lost Worlds, no. 3 (2006): 34–35, which prints an early draft of the poem, titled “Amithaigne.”
“Cycles.” CAS’s last poem, dated June 4, 1961. First published in In Memoriam: Clark Ashton Smith, ed. Jack L. Chalker (Baltimore: Mirage Press, 1963). The first three words dupl
icate the title of a poem written circa 1943 (Acolyte, Spring 1944; CPT 2.480).
1. The Pleiades is a cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus.
2. Alcyone is the brightest of the Pleiades.
3. Antares is a red star of the first magnitude in the constellation Scorpio.
4. Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion.
5. Hecate was a Greek goddess (the daughter of the Titan Perses and Asterie) who eventually became associated with the ghost world, sorcery, and black magic, being an attendant on Persephone in the underworld.
6. Cimmerian refers either to an imaginary people cited in Homer (Odyssey 11.14) as dwelling beyond the ocean in perpetual darkness, or to an actual tribe dwelling on the north shore of the Black Sea in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE.
7. Tyre was the most important city in Phoenicia, located in modern-day Lebanon. It was settled as early as the thirteenth century BCE and was sacked by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE.
8. For Asmodai, see note 9 to “The Holiness of Azédarac.” Set is, in Egyptian myth, an animal-headed god, the god of darkness, night, and evil, and the brother, opponent, and slayer of Osiris.
9. Ombos is Greek for thunderstorm.
10. See note 3 above.
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies Page 42
