STRANGE ELEMENTS
WHEN my girl swims with me I think
She is a Shark with hungry teeth,
Because her throat that dazzles me
Is white as sharks are underneath.
And when she drags me down with her
Under the wave, she clings so tight,
She seems a deadly Water-snake
Who smothers me in that dim light.
Yet when we lie on the hot sand,
I find she cannot bite or hiss,
But she swears I’m a Tiger fierce
Who kills her slowly with a kiss.
W. FORCE STEAD
(QUEEN’S)
THE BURDEN OF BABYLON[A]
“It is in the soul that things happen.”
[A] The lyrics from “The Burden of Babylon” appeared in Oxford Poetry, 1919. The present editors have decided to reprint them with their context.
Scene: An upper chamber in the Palace of the King of Babylon. Dusk on a hot summer’s evening. The voice of one singing far off beyond the palace-gardens is heard vaguely from time to time. The King is sitting by an open window.