| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Drôlatique-sérieux | | By Emanuel Carnevali |
| | From “The Splendid Commonplace”
THROUGH the lowered awning’s chink | |
| The sun enters my room with the glad fury | |
| Of a victorious dagger wielded by an adventurous child. | |
| I smoke: | |
| On the blade of the golden dagger | 5 |
| The smoke of my cigarette | |
| Writhes, struggles, seems to wail and protest, | |
| Then escapes, runs away, hurriedly, out of the window. | |
| It meets the sun— | |
| This blue, dream-fed smoke meets the sun. | 10 |
| The sun has no dream— | |
| Perhaps it is Truth itself, | |
| So beautiful! | |
| Then it’s wrong, very wrong, | |
| To puff my dream in the radiant face of Truth? | 15 |
| Is it blasphemous, cowardly? | |
| Is it to insult the Sun? | | | | |
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