Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, JOACHIM, by PAUL FORT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

JOACHIM, by                    
First Line: The night glides, chill and murk, through paris. In its shades two
Last Line: Steeped in tears, steeped in tears. . . . O those little broken cries!
Subject(s): Life; Night; Paris, France; Bedtime


The night glides, chill and murk, through Paris. In its shades two trembling
shadows lurk, two meagre little shades that shiver frigidly, then glide away
through the dark.

-- Sweet Sire, I have sworn. This night we must depart.
-- 'Tis well, but follow, follow.

From little street to little street two little, meagre shades stir in the cold,
-- then stop.
There, before a half-buried hovel, a voice, a little voice, faintly acrid,
bitter-sweet, a little voice that steeps itself in tears. -- I am neither lion
nor wolf nor fox. I am a man. Croy, gently knock at that door and call, "Dame
Simonne of the chains!"

-- Dame Simonne of the chains!
-- Good. Listen! Listen! . . . Ask if yesterday some member of her household did
not die.
-- Dame Simonne, was Death here yesterday?
-- Alas, sweet Lord, then you have heard, you also. My son Joachim, my son, last
night.
-- I am neither lion nor wolf nor fox. I am a man. Croy, aid me, comfort me!
Joachim! . . . Croy! I am neither lion nor wolf nor fox, being all three. Croy,
I'm a man. Adieu, O little being! . . . Joachim! Come. So be it! Let us go. Dame
Simonne has been to me . . . Dame Simonne was to me . . . Croy, I am human.
Croy, I weep a little life . . . Joachim! Alas! . . . my little child. . . .

Night, thick and cold and murk, through Paris glides, one spies two little
meagre shades that slide and sway in the dark. . . . O that little voice,
steeped in tears, steeped in tears. . . . O those little broken cries!





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