Madrigal of Evanescence

Clark Ashton Smith

Dear, can we endure to know
How these jasmine-girdled hours
Shall become the long ago?
Love, can we endure to know
How our longing and our woe
Fall like autumn-loosened flowers
Down the gulf of days foredone
On unstelled oblivion?

Love, can we endure to prove
How no longest pang or pleasure
Lengthens out the lot of love?
Dear, can we endure to prove
How the sharpening moons will measure
Our permitted joys, and pass
Autumnward on withered grass?

Printed from: eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/317
Printed on: March 29, 2024