| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | La Mort de Paul Verlaine | | By Max Michelson |
| | From “Masks”
THE FEW rosy cloud-splotches | |
| In the bluish-white afternoon sky | |
| Shed down ruddy flowers of light— | |
| Big, capriciously shaped lilies and orchids—so thickly | |
| That some, held at the stems, stood as if growing straight from the grass. | 5 |
| Among them he came—short, heavy, a little ragged, | |
| With eyes and lips that had laughed much with wine; | |
| Faintly-drunk, as if wine-vapors of the past were hovering in his head; | |
| Blowing his flute and dancing, | |
| Now fast, now slow, and now stopping … listening … | 10 |
| An earth-flower among the light flowers. | |
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| Tired, he dropped down on the grass. | |
| The light-flowers caressed his cheeks and his drowsy eyes with their cloud-like coolness—piling about him. | |
| Did the trees understand? | |
| |
| The birds sang | 15 |
| As though it were a sunrise. | | | | |
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