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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO MOUNT AETNA by EDOUARD JOACHIM CORBIERE

First Line: AETNA - I'VE BEEN UP VESUVIUS / VESUVIUS HAS SHRUNK, IT SEEMS
Last Line: A LITTLE MORE . . . OR LESS . . .
Subject(s): ETNA (VOLCANO); VOLCANOES; AETNA (VOLCANO);

AEtna-I've been up Vesuvius . . .
Vesuvius has shrunk, it seems:
There was more heat in me than streams
From that wounded crater in hot pus . . .

-They say you're like a woman. -What?
-Your age, I suppose-? or maybe that cooked
Pebble, your heart? . . . Well, it's a thought . . .
Laugh? I thought I'd come apart!

-That dirty grin of yours, that cough
Thick as the phlegm of a senile lust;
Your old breast cancer draining off
Lava from under its scabby crust.

Comrade, let's go to bed together,
My hide against your sick hide; yes,
I swear by Venus you're my brother,
Vulcan! . . .
A little more . . . or less . . .



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