Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DECOR DE THEATRE: 4. AIR DE BALLET (TO CLEO DE MERODE), by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS


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DECOR DE THEATRE: 4. AIR DE BALLET (TO CLEO DE MERODE), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why is it, child, you choose to wear
Last Line: "I loved gavarni for a week."
Subject(s): Ballet; Dancing & Dancers


Why is it, child, you choose to wear
That artful 1830 air
Of artlessness made artifice?
To lure all lips to long to kiss
The saint-like halo of your hair?

"I am the spirit of a fan.
Ah, once, what wanton breezes ran
Across my silk and ivory!
As a fan's breath is life to me,
I have no heart for any man.

"As a fan fluttered by a wrist,
Bright lips that now are dust have kissed,
I waken, out of other hours,
The phantoms of forgotten flowers
That hold me to a phantom tryst.

"If these calm eyes, if that pure cheek,
If this soft haloed hair, could speak
The false, fantastic, final truth,
In some remote, remembered youth
I loved Gavarni for a week."





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