WHEN Reuben Pantier ran away and threw me I went to Springfield. There I met a lush, Whose father just deceased left him a fortune. He married me when drunk. My life was wretched. A year passed and one day they found him dead. That made me rich. I moved on to Chicago. After a time met Tyler Rountree, villain. I moved on to New York. A gray-haired magnate Went mad about me -- so another fortune. He died one night right in my arms, you know. (I saw his purple face for years thereafter.) There was almost a scandal. I moved on, This time to Paris. I was now a woman, Insidious, subtle, versed in the world and rich. My sweet apartment near the Champs Elysees Became a center for all sorts of people, Musicians, poets, dandies, artists, nobles, Where we spoke French and German, Italian, English. I wed Count Navigato, native of Genoa. We went to Rome. He poisoned me, I think. Now in the Campo Santo overlooking The sea where young Columbus dreamed new worlds, See what they chiseled: "Contessa Navigato Implora eterna quiete." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SCHOOLBOYS IN WINTER by JOHN CLARE THE RETIRED CAT by WILLIAM COWPER THE PARADOX by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: 2. IN CHURCH by THOMAS HARDY THE CASTLE OF CHILLON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON INDEPENDENCE by HENRY DAVID THOREAU THEN AND NOW by JEAN JACQUES ANTOINE AMPERE |