CONTENTS

[The Avenue][15]
[Mandoline][17]
[Comedy for Marionettes][20]
[Falsetto Song][23]
[Eventail][24]
Fifteen Bucolic Poems:
[I.]What the Goosegirl said about the Dean[26]
[II.]Noah[28]
[III.]The Girl with the Lint-white Locks[29]
[IV.]The Lady with the Sewing-Machine[31]
[V.]By Candlelight[33]
[VI.]Serenade[35]
[VII.]Clowns’ Houses[36]
[VIII.]The Satyr in the Periwig[39]
[IX.]The Muslin Gown[41]
[X.]Miss Nettybun and the Satyr’s Child[42]
[XI.]Queen Venus and the Choirboy[43]
[XII.]The Ape sees the Fat Woman[45]
[XIII.]The Ape watches “Aunt Sally”[47]
[XIV.]Springing Jack[48]
[XV.]“Tournez, Tournez, Bons Chevaux de Bois”[50]
Seven Nursery Songs:
[I.]Old Lady Fly-Away[52]
[II.]Great Snoring and Norwich[53]
[III.]Fat William and the Trains[54]
[IV.]A Penny Fare to Babylon[55]
[V.]The Butcher’s Shop[56]
[VI.]The King of China’s Daughter[57]
[VII.]Old King Ptolemy[58]
[Pedagogues and Flower Shows I][60]
[Pedagogues and Flower Shows II][62]
[Switchback][63]
[Trams][64]
[Bank Holiday I][65]
[Bank Holiday II][66]
[Small Talk I][67]
[Small Talk II][69]
[Dansons la Gigue][70]
[Messalina at Margate][72]
[Pedagogues][75]
[Song from “the Queen of Palmyra”][77]
[The Choir-Boy rides on the Switchback][78]
[Apricot Jam][80]
[Stopping Place][82]
[Portrait of a Barmaid][85]
[Materialism; or, Pastor —— takes the Restaurant Car for Heaven][87]
[Thaïs in Heaven][89]
Four Nocturnes:
[I.]Processions[91]
[II.]Gaiety[93]
[III.]Vacuum[96]
[IV.]“Et l’on entend à Peine leurs Paroles”[98]
Treats:
[I.]Funerals[100]
[II.]The County Calls[102]
[III.]Solo for Ear-Trumpet[104]
[Antic Hay][106]
[Lullaby][108]
[Water Music][109]
[The Web of Eros][110]
[Drowned Suns][111]
[The Spider][112]
[The Drunkard][115]
[The Mother][117]

SINGERIE

SUMMER afternoon in Hell!
Down the empty street it fell,
Pantaloon and Scaramouche—
Tongues like flames and shadows louche—
Flickered down the street together
In the spangled weather.
Flames, bright singing-birds that pass,
Whistled wares as shrill as grass
(Landscapes clear as glittering glass),
Whistled all together:
Papagei, oh Papagei,
Buy our greenest fruits, oh buy,
Melons misty from the bloom
Of mellow moons on some hot night,
Melting in the August light;
Apples like an emerald shower;
Nectarines that falling boom
On the grass in greenest gloom;
Peaches bright as parrot’s feather
Glistening from the moon’s bower;
Chequered like fritillaries,
Fat and red are strawberries.
Parrot-voices shrill together—
Now they pelt each monkey-face
(Pantaloon with simian grace)
From the soft gloom till they smother
Both the plumed head-dresses
With the green fruit-gems that glitter
(Twinkling sharp sounds like a zither).
Sharp each bird-tongue shrills and hisses,
Parrot-voices shrieking bane;—
Down comes every spangled shutter
With a sudden noise like rain.

THE AVENUE

IN the huge and glassy room,
Pantaloon, with his tail-feather
Spangled like the weather,
Panached, too, with many a plume,
Watched the monkey Fanfreluche,
Shivering in his gilded ruche,
Fawn upon the piano keys—
Flatter till they answer back,
Through the scale of centuries,
Difference between white and black.
Winds like hurricanes of light
Change the blackest vacuums
To a light-barred avenue—
Semitones of might and right;
Then, from matter, life comes.
Down that lengthy avenue
Leading us we know not where,
Sudden views creep through the air;
Oh the keys we stumble through!
Jungles splashed with violent light,
Promenades all hard and bright,
Long tails like the swish of seas,
Avenue of piano keys.
Meaning comes to bind the whole,
Fingers separate from thumbs,
Soon the shapeless tune comes:
Bestial efforts at man’s soul.
What though notes are false and shrill—
Black streets tumbling down a hill?
Fundamentally
I am you, and you are me—
Octaves fall as emptily.

MANDOLINE

DOWN in Hell’s gilded street,
Snow dances fleet and sweet,
Bright as a parokeet,

Or Punchinello,
All glistening yellow,
As fruit-jewels mellow,