Symbols

by Clark Ashton Smith


	No more of gold and marble, nor of snow
	And sunlight and vemilion, would I make
	My vision and my symbols, nor would take
	The auroral flame of some prismatic floe.
	Nor iris of the frail and lunar bow,
	Flung on the shafted waterfalls that wake
	The night's blue slumber in a shadowy lake.
	To body forth my fantasies, and show
	Communicable mystery, I would find,
	In adamantine darkness of the earth,
	Metals of any sun; and bring
	Black azures of the nether sea to birth--
	Or fetch the secret, splendid leaves, and blind
	Blue lilies of an Atlantean spring.