Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PARIS AT NIGHT, by EDOUARD JOACHIM CORBIERE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PARIS AT NIGHT, by                    
First Line: It is the sea: dead calm - and the spring tide
Last Line: On a bed of the morgue . . . With his eyes wide open!
Alternate Author Name(s): Corbiere, Tristan
Subject(s): Night; Paris, France; Bedtime


It's not a city, it's a world

-It is the sea: dead calm-and the spring tide
With a far-off roaring has departed.
The surge will come back rolling in its noise-
Do you hear the scratching of the crabs of night?

-It is the Styx run dry: The ragpicker Diogenes,
Lantern in hand, roams about unperturbed.
All along the black stream depraved poets
Fish; from empty skulls they bait their lines.

-It is the field: To glean the dirty rags
The turning flight of hideous Harpies swoops;
The alley cat, on the lookout for rats,
Flees Bondy's criminal sons, nocturnal vintagers.

-It is death: Here lie the police. -Up there, love
Siestas, sucking the meat of a heavy arm
Where the quenched kiss leaves its red mark . . .
The hour is alone-Listen . . . not a dream is moving.

-It is life: Listen: the live stream is singing
The eternal song on the slimy head
Of a sea-god stretching his limbs naked and green
On a bed of the Morgue . . . With his eyes wide open!





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