The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith

$15.00

  • Edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
  • Second edition: January 2021
  • Cover illustration by Clark Ashton Smith. Cover design by Daniel V. Sauer
  • ISBN 9781614982401
  • Paperback: 198 pp.

 

BACK IN PRINT BY POPULAR DEMAND!

 

What is new about this edition?

A few typos have been corrected, and the bibliography bolstered. When the book first came out in 2002, some first appearances of poems had not yet been discovered. The main change is that the book is larger 6 x 9 in. format, with a larger font, improving legibility.

 

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

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This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 23 January, 2021.