''Spells and Philtres'' is a collection of poems by
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Algernon Charles Swinburne ...
. It was released in
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
and was the author's fifth book and second collection of poetry to be published by
Arkham House
Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had pr ...
. It was released in an edition of 519 copies. The book was a second stop-gap volume following ''
The Dark Chateau''. It represented Smith's poetry while the more extensive ''
Selected Poems'' was being prepared which did not ultimately appear until
1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
. The collection also includes several translations of French and Spanish poems. Clérigo Herrero, however, is not a real person and the poem is actually a composition of Smith's.
Contents
''Spells and Philtres'' contains the following poems:
* "Dedication"
* "Didus Ineptus"
* "Thebaid"
* "Secret Love"
* "The Pagan"
* "Tired Gardener"
* "Nada"
* "High Surf"
* "The Centaur"
* "Said the Dreamer"
* "The Nameless Wraith"
* "The Blindness of Orion"
* "Jungle Twilight"
* "The Phoenix"
* "The Prophet Speaks"
* "Farewell to Eros"
* "Alternative"
* "Only to One Returned"
* "Anteros"
* "No Stranger Dream"
* "Do you Forget, Enchantress?"
* "Necromancy"
* "Dialogue"
* "October"
* "Dominion"
* "Tolometh"
* "Disillusionment"
* "Almost Anything"
* "Parnassus a la Mode"
* "Fence and Wall"
* "Growth of Lichen"
* "Cats in Winter Sunlight"
* "Abandoned Plum-Orchard"
* "Harvest Evening"
* "Willow-Cutting in Autumn"
* "Late Pear-Pruner"
* "Geese in the Spring Night"
* "The Sparrow's Nest"
* "The Last Apricot"
* "Unicorn"
* "Untold Arabian Fable"
* "A Hunter Meets the Mantichoras"
* "The Sciapod"
* "The Monacle"
* "Feast of St. Anthony"
* "Paphnutios"
* "Philter"
* "Perseus and Medusa"
* "Essence"
* "Passing of an Elder God"
* "Nightmare of the Lilliputian"
* "Mithridates"
* "Quiddity"
* "'That Motley Drama'" (from Clérigo Herrero)
* "Rimas XXXIII" (from
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida (17 February 1836 – 22 December 1870), better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (), was a Spanish Romantic poet and writer (mostly short stories), also a playwright, literary columnist, and talented ...
)
* "Ecclesiastes" (from
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle)
* "Anterior Life" (from
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
)
* "Song of Autumn" (from
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
)
* "Lethe" (from
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
)
* "The Metamorphoses of the Vampire" (from
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
)
* "Epigrams and Apothegms"
See also
*
Clark Ashton Smith bibliography
The following is a list of works by Clark Ashton Smith.
__TOC__
Short fiction
Prose poems
Novel
* ''The Black Diamonds'', written in 1907, published in 2002
Plays
* ''The Dead will Cuckold You'': A Drama in Six Acts (in verse). Written in ...
Sources
*
*
*
*
{{Works of Clark Ashton Smith
1958 books
American poetry collections