Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LAMENT OF THE PIANOS ... OVERHEARD IN WELL-TO-DO QUARTERS, by JULES LAFORGUE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LAMENT OF THE PIANOS ... OVERHEARD IN WELL-TO-DO QUARTERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lead the soul whom letters have well nourished
Last Line: "o months, o linens, o meals!"
Subject(s): Despair; Musical Instruments; Pianos


Lead the soul whom Letters have well nourished,
The pianos, the pianos, in the well-to-do quarters!
The first evenings, without overcoat, chaste sauntering,
At the complaints of misunderstood or aching nerves.

These little girls, of what do they dream,
In the ennuis of practicing preludes?

-"Courtyards of the evenings,
Christs hung in dormitories!

"You go away and you leave us,
You leave us and you go away,
To undo and do again their tresses,
To embroider eternal canvases."

Pretty or vague? sad or wise? still pure?
O days, is all the same to me? or, world, do I myself have will?
And if untouched, at least, by the blighting wound,
Knowing what fat sunsets have the purest vows?

My God, of what then do they dream?
Of Rolands, of lacework?

-"Hearts in prison,
Slow seasons!

"You go away and you leave us,
You leave us and you go away!
Gray convents, Shulamite choirs,
On our undeveloped breasts we cross our arms."

Fatal keys of existence which one fine day appeared,
Pstt! in the heredities in punctual ferments,
In the incessant ball of our strange streets;
Ah! boarding schools, theaters, newspapers, novels!

Go, sterile preludes,
Life is genuine and criminal.

-"Drawn curtains,
Can one enter?

"You go away and you leave us,
You leave us and you go away,
The foundtainhead of the fresh rosebushes is sinking,
Indeed! And he who does not come . . ."

He will come! You will be the poor souls at fault,
Affianced to remorse as to bottomless attempts,
And the self-satisfied moneyed souls, having no guest other
Than a humdrum daily routine decked out with esteem and lace ribbons.

To die? perhaps these girls embroider
For an uncle with dowry to give, some suspenders?

-"Never! Never!
If you knew!

"You go away and you leave us,
You leave us and you go away!
But you will return very quickly
To cure my beautiful sickness, will you not?"

And it is true! The Ideal makes them all wander away,
Bohemian vine, even in these well-to-do quarters.
Life is there; the pure flask of living drops
Will be, as is proper, baptized with the water of conventionality.

Also, soon, they will play
More accurate practice preludes.

"-Our only bed-pillow!
Intimate wall!

"You go away and you leave us,
You leave us and you go away,
Why did I not die at Mass!
O months, o linens, o meals!"





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