The traveller who crossed Les Halles at summer's end Tiptoed as she walked Despair stirred in the sky its great lilies so lovely And in her purse she had my dream that bottle of salts That only God's godmother had breathed Torpors were spreading like mists At the Smoking Dog The Pro and Con had just dropped in And the young woman could be seen by them but badly and in profile Was I dealing with the Ambassadress of saltpeter Or of the white curve on a black background that we call thought The Ball of the Innocents was in full swing The lanterns were slowly catching fire in the chestnut trees The shadowless girl knelt down on the Pont au Change Rue Git-le-Coeur things no longer rang with the same note The promises of the nights had at last been kept The homing pigeons and the emergency kisses Were clustering round the breasts of the lovely unknown girl That stood out beneath the veil of perfect meaning A farm was prospering in the heart of Paris And its windows looked out on the Milky Way But nobody lived in it because of the guests The guests that are more faithful one knows than ghosts Those like that woman seem to be swimming And there is in love some of their substance She makes them part of herself I am the plaything of no sensory power Yet the cricket that chirped in the locks of cinders Close to the statue of Étienne Marcel Gave me a look of intelligence André Breton he said may pass here. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LEAVES OF THE TREE HIDE THE SUN by DAVID IGNATOW ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE, MY LITTLE ONE' by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SORROW SINGERS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPRING DAY: NIGHT AND SLEEP by AMY LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JONAS KEENE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE NEGRO'S TRAGEDY by CLAUDE MCKAY |