4341350The Recluse — Brumes et PluiesClark Ashton Smith

Brumes et Pluies

(From the French of Charles P. Baudelaire)

By Clark Ashton Smith

Long ends of autumn, winters, springs re-drenched with gloom,
You seasons dim with sleep! I love and laud you, fain
To fold about my heart and my oblivious brain
Your vaporous pall and vague, itinerary tomb.

In the void plain where boreal blasts are revelling,
Where wheels the weathervane through the delaying night,
Better than in soft summer dawns, with more delight,
My soul most amply will unfurl her raven wing.

To a heart replete with funeral memories numberless
Whereon autumnal frosts have fallen from old time,
Naught is more sweet, O queenliest seasons of our clime,

Than the abiding train of your pale darknesses,—
Unless it be, some evening when the moon is dead,
To enslumber all our grief upon a chanceful bed.

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1967, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 56 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse