The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith

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Edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
Second edition: January 2021
Cover illustration by Clark Ashton Smith. Cover design by Dan Sauer
6 x 9 paperback, 198 pages

FROM OUR FRIENDS AT HIPPOCAMPUS PRESS! Clark Ashton Smith could well be considered one of the great poets of the twentieth century, and much of his verse explores the realms of fantasy, terror, wonder, and the supernatural. In this volume—the first major selection of Smith's poetry in more than thirty years—editors S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz have presented an extensive array of poetic work that fully reveals Smith's exotic language, imaginative range, and metrical precision.

Including work from as early as the precocious Star-Treader and Other Poems (1912) and as late as the posthumously published The Hill of Dionysus (1962), The Last Oblivion features such celebrated works as "Nero," "Ode to the Abyss," and Smith's exquisite elegies to his mentor George Sterling and to his colleague in fantasy, H. P. Lovecraft. Poems on Zothique, Averoigne, and Atlantis—realms in which many of his prose tales are set—are also featured. As an aid to readers, an exhaustive glossay of unusual words and names used in Smith's poetry is provided.

S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz are leading authorities on Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and their circle. Among their numerous publications are Hippocampus Press editions of the complete poetry of George Sterling, and the collected works of Samuel Loveman.

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Hashish-Eater; or, The Apocalypse of Evil

I. The Star-Treader

The Star-Treader
Ode to the Abyss
Nirvana
The Song of a Comet
Lament of the Stars
In Saturn
Triple Aspect
The Abyss Triumphant
The Motes
Desire of Vastness
Shadows
A Dream of the Abyss
After Armageddon
The Ancient Quest
A Dream of Oblivion
Ode to Light
Ode to Matter

II. Medusa and Other Horrors

Nero
Medusa
Averted Malefice
The Medusa of the Skies
Saturn
In Lemuria
Satan Unrepentant
The Ghoul and the Seraph
The Medusa of Despair
A Vision of Lucifer
The Witch in the Graveyard
The Flight of Azrael
The Mummy
Minatory
To the Chimera
The Whisper of the Worm
The Envoys
Nyctalops
Jungle Twilight
Necromancy
The Witch with Eyes of Amber
Cambion
The Saturnienne
Chance
Revenant
Song of the Necromancer
Pour chercher du nouveau
Witch-Dance
Not Theirs the Cypress-Arch

III. The Eldritch Dark

A Song from Hell
The Titans in Tartarus
The Twilight Woods
Lethe
Atlantis
The Eldritch Dark
White Death
A Dead City
The Cloud-Islands
The City of the Titans
The City of Destruction
Beyond the Great Wall
Solution
Rosa Mystica
Symbols
The City in the Desert
The Melancholy Pool
Twilight on the Snow
The Land of Evil Stars
Memnon at Midnight
The Kingdom of Shadows
Moon-Dawn
Outlanders
Warning
The Nightmare Tarn
The Prophet Speaks
The Outer Land
In Thessaly
Le Miroir des blanches fleurs
The Moonlight Desert
Ougabalys
Desert Dweller
Amithaine
The Dark Chateau
Averoigne
Zothique

IV. Said the Dreamer

The Castle of Dreams
The Dream-God's Realm
Imagination
The Last Night
Shadow of Nightmare
A Song of Dreams
The Dream-Bridge
Said the Dreamer
Dolor of Dreams
Luna Aeternalis
Echo of Memnon
Nightmare
The Last Goddess
Love Malevolent
The Wingless Archangels
Enchanted Mirrors
Selenique
Maya
Fantaisie d'Antan
In Slumber

V. The Refuge of Beauty

The Power of Eld
Strangeness
The Nereid
Exotique
Transcendence
The Tears of Lilith
Cleopatra
The Refuge of Beauty
Sandalwood
The Last Oblivion
Alienage
Adventure
Interrogation
Canticle
To Antares
Connaissance
Exorcism
Lamia
Farewell to Eros
Some Blind Eidolon
Bacchante
Resurrection
The Sorcerer to His Love
The Hill of Dionysus
Midnight Beach
Omniety

VI. To the Darkness

Ode on Imagination
Retrospect and Forecast
To the Darkness
A Dream of Beauty
The Pursuer
In the Desert
The Nameless Wraith
To the Daemon of Sublimity
Desolation
Inferno
Dissonance
Remembered Light
The Incubus of Time
Laus Mortis
The Hope of the Infinite
Antepast
Forgotten Sorrow
Lunar Mystery
The Funeral Urn
Mors
September
Ennui

VII. The Sorcerer Departs

To Omar Khayyam
To Nora May French
On Re-reading Baudelaire
To George Sterling: A Valediction
To Howard Phillips Lovecraft
H. P. L.
Soliloquy in a Ebon Tower
Cycles

Glossary
Bibliography
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines