Ebony and Crystal/Desolation

by Clark Ashton Smith

For works with similar titles, see Desolation.

DESOLATION

It seems to me that I have lived alone—Alone, as one that liveth in a dream:As light on coldest marble, or the gleamOf moons eternal on a land of stone,The dawns have been to me. I have but knownThe silence of a frozen land extreme—A sole attending silence, all supremeAs is the sea's enormous monotone.

Upon the icy desert of my days,No bright mirages are, but iron raysOf dawn relentless, and the bitter lightOf all-revealing noon.****Alone, I craveThe friendly clasp of finite arms, to saveMy spirit from the ravening Infinite.