Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 17. HENRY JAMES, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 17. HENRY JAMES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who comes to-night? We ope the doors in vain
Last Line: Comes (best of all) himself -- our welcome james.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Guests; Night; Visiting; Bedtime


WHO comes to-night? We ope the doors in vain.
Who comes? My bursting walls, can you contain
The presences that now together throng
Your narrow entry, as with flowers and song,
As with the air of life, the breath of talk?
Lo, how these fair immaculate women walk
Behind their jocund maker; and we see
Slighted De Mauves, and that far different she,
Gressie, the trivial sphynx; and to our feast
Daisy and Bard and Chancellor (she not least!)
With all their silken, all their airy kin,
Do like unbidden angels enter in.
But he, attended by these shining names,
Comes (best of all) himself -- our welcome James.





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