| |
| | A much-discerning Public hold |
| The Singer generally sings |
| Of personal and private things, |
| And prints and sells his past for gold. |
| |
| Whatever I may here disclaim, |
| The very clever folk I sing to |
| Will most indubitably cling to |
| Their pet delusion, just the same. |
I HAD seen, as dawn was breaking | |
| And I staggered to my rest, | |
| Tara Devi softly shaking | |
| From the Cart Road to the crest. | |
| I had seen the spurs of Jakko | 5 |
| Heave and quiver, swell and sink. | |
| Was it Earthquake or tobacco, | |
| Day of Doom or Night of Drink? | |
| |
| In the full, fresh, fragrant morning | |
| I observed a camel crawl, | 10 |
| Laws of gravitation scorning, | |
| On the ceiling and the wall. | |
| Then I watched a fender walking, | |
| And I heard grey leeches sing, | |
| And a red-hot monkey talking | 15 |
| Did not seem the proper thing. | |
| |
| Then a Creature, skinned and crimson, | |
| Ran about the floor and cried, | |
| And they said I had the “jims” on, | |
| And they dosed me with bromide, | 20 |
| And they locked me in my bedroom— | |
| Me and one wee Blood Red Mouse— | |
| Though I said:—“To give my head room | |
| “You had best unroof the house.” | |
| |
| But my words were all unheeded, | 25 |
| Though I told the grave M.D. | |
| That the treatment really needed | |
| Was a dip in open sea | |
| That was lapping just below me, | |
| Smooth as silver, white as snow— | 30 |
| And it took three men to throw me | |
| When I found I could not go. | |
| |
| Half the night I watched the Heavens | |
| Fizz like ’81 champagne— | |
| Fly to sixes and to sevens, | 35 |
| Wheel and thunder back again; | |
| And when all was peace and order | |
| Save one planet nailed askew, | |
| Much I wept because my warder | |
| Would not let me set it true. | 40 |
| |
| After frenzied hours of waiting, | |
| When the Earth and Skies were dumb, | |
| Pealed an awful voice dictating | |
| An interminable sum, | |
| Changing to a tangled story— | 45 |
| “What she said you said I said—” | |
| Till the Moon arose in glory, | |
| And I found her … in my head; | |
| |
| Then a Face came, blind and weeping, | |
| And It couldn’t wipe Its eyes, | 50 |
| And It muttered I was keeping | |
| Back the moonlight from the skies; | |
| So I patted It for pity, | |
| But It whistled shrill with wrath, | |
| And a huge, black Devil City | 55 |
| Poured its peoples on my path. | |
| |
| So I fled with steps uncertain | |
| On a thousand-year long race, | |
| But the bellying of the curtain | |
| Kept me always in one place, | 60 |
| While the tumult rose and maddened | |
| To the roar of Earth on fire, | |
| Ere it ebbed and sank and saddened | |
| To a whisper tense as wire. | |
| |
| In intolerable stillness | 65 |
| Rose one little, little star, | |
| And it chuckled at my illness, | |
| And it mocked me from afar; | |
| And its brethren came and eyed me, | |
| Called the Universe to aid, | 70 |
| Till I lay, with naught to hide me, | |
| ’Neath the Scorn of All Things Made. | |
| |
| Dun and saffron, robed and splendid | |
| Broke the solemn, pitying Day, | |
| And I knew my pains were ended, | 75 |
| And I turned and tried to pray; | |
| But my speech was shattered wholly, | |
| And I wept as children weep, | |
| Till the dawn-wind, softly, slowly, | |
| Brought to burning eyelids sleep. | 80 |
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