Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO HENRY JAMES, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO HENRY JAMES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Adela, adela, adela chart
Last Line: The second dumbfoundered me, adela chart!
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): James, Henry (1843-1916)


Adela, Adela, Adela Chart
What have you done to my elderly heart?
Of all the ladies of paper and ink
I count you the paragon, call you the pink.

The word of your brother depicts you in part:
'You raving maniac!' Adela Chart;
But in all the asylums that cumber the ground,
So delightful a maniac was ne'er to be found.

I pore on you, dote on you, clasp you to heart,
I laud, love, and laugh at you, Adela Chart,
And thank my dear maker the while I admire
That I can be neither your husband nor sire.

Your husband's, your sire's were a difficult part;
You're a byway to suicide, Adela Chart;
But to read of, depicted by exquisite James,
O, sure you're the flower and quintessence of dames.

Eructavit cor meum

My heart was inditing a goodly matter about Adela Chart

Though oft I've been touched by the volatile dart,
To none have I grovelled but Adela Chart,
There are passable ladies, no question, in art --
But where is the marrow of Adela Chart?
I dreamed that to Tyburn I passed in the cart --
I dreamed I was married to Adela Chart:
From the first I awoke with a palpable start,
The second dumbfoundered me, Adela Chart!





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