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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PHANTOMS IN GREEN, by STANLEY KILNER BOOTH
First Line: With wine for deep forgetfulness
Last Line: Oh, wormwood, how ethereal!
Subject(s): Absinthe
First Line: With wine for deep forgetfulness
Last Line: Oh, wormwood, how ethereal!
Subject(s): Absinthe
With wine for deep forgetfulness,
He dips again within the bowl,
And seeks a dream of loveliness
Down pathways with his poisoned soul.
His blood will crave a rendezvous,
As absinthe creeps through every vein.
Desiring Lethe, how can he rue
Her dark nepenthe for his pain?
His fantasy is wondrous trailed
With crystal gardens, mile on mile;
By emerald seas, whence Lethe sailed
To greet him with her treacherous smile.
Past isles of grotesque imagery,
Lit by the moon's weird mandarin,
Attuned to lecherous melody:
Food of the Serpent, venom-green.
The absinthe trails its false delight.
The hour is gone -- he lived it all.
Now doomed and shattered is the night,
As life becomes a draught of gall.
No ecstasy is consummate
Where Lethe flaunts her naked snare.
The dreamer finds that only Hate
Strangles him with her wine-soaked hair.
Absinthe is but the coward's goal --
And yet, one craves the incorporeal
Desire, with its phantomed bowl ...
Oh, wormwood, how ethereal!
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