I delved in each forgotten mind,
The units that had builded me,
Whose deepnesses before were blind
And formless as infinity—
Knowing again each former world—
From planet unto planet whirled
Through gulfs that mightily divide
Like to an intervital sleep.
One world I found, where souls abide
Like winds that rest upon a rose;
Thereto they creep
To loose all burden of old woes.
And one I knew, where warp of pain
Is woven in the soul’s attire;
And one, where with new loveliness
Is strengthened Beauty’s olden chain—
Soft as a sound, and keen as fire—
In light no darkness may depress.

Section IV of Clark Ashton Smith’s poem, “The Star-Treader,” from his 1912 collection, The Star-Treader and Other Poems.

One in a series of science fiction poems originally published during the genre’s Radium Age (1904–33). In 2012, HiLoBooks will reissue six Radium Age sf classics, in beautiful new editions! Learn more, and order the books here.

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