Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BURBANK WITH A BAEDEKER: BLEISTEIN WITH A CIGAR, by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BURBANK WITH A BAEDEKER: BLEISTEIN WITH A CIGAR, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Burbank crossed a little bridge
Last Line: Time's ruins, and the seven laws.
Alternate Author Name(s): Eliot, T. S.


Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire -- nil nisi divinum
stabile est; caetera fumus -- the gondola
stopped, the old palace was there, how
charming its grey and pink -- goats and
monkeys, with such hair too! -- so the countess
passed on until she came through the little
park, where Niobe presented her with a
cabinet, and so departed.

BURBANK crossed a little bridge
Descending at a small hotel;
Princess Volupine arrived,
They were together, and he fell.

Defunctive music under sea
Passed seaward with the passing bell
Slowly: the God Hercules
Had left him, that had loved him well.

The horses, under the axletree
Beat up the dawn from Istria
With even feet. Her shuttered barge
Burned on the water all the day.

But this or such was Bleistein's way:
A saggy bending of the knees
And elbows, with the palms turned out,
Chicago Semite Viennese.

A lustreless protrusive eye
Stares from the protozoic slime
At a perspective of Canaletto.
The smoky candle end of time

Declines. On the Rialto once.
The rats are underneath the piles.
The jew is underneath the lot.
Money in furs. The boatman smiles,

Princess Volupine extends
A meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand
To climb the waterstair. Lights, lights,
She entertains Sir Ferdinand

Klein. Who clipped the lion's wings
And flea'd his rump and pared his claws?
Thought Burbank, meditating on
Time's ruins, and the seven laws.






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