Averted Malefice
Clark Ashton Smith 1893 (Long Valley Caldera) – 1961 (Pacific Grove)
Where mandrakes, crying from the moonless fen,
Told how a witch, with gaze of owl or bat
Found, and each root malevolently fat
Pulled for her waiting cauldron, on my ken
Upstole, escaping to the world of men,
A vapor as of some infernal vat;
Against the stars it clomb, and caught thereat
As if their bright regard to veil again.
Despite the web, methought they saw, appalled,
The stealthier weft in which all sound was still ...
Then sprang, as if the night found breath anew,
A wind whereby the stars were disenthralled ...
Far off, I heard the cry of frustrate ill -
A witch that wailed above her curdled brew.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 6 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBA XCDBCD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 603 |
Words | 112 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"Averted Malefice" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/54946/averted-malefice>.
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