Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FACADE: 16. THE AVENUE, by EDITH SITWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: In the huge and glassy room Last Line: Octaves fall as emptily. | ||||||||
IN the huge and glassy room Pantaloon, with his tail-feather Spangled like the weather, Panached, too, with many a plume, Watched the monkey Fanfreluche, Shivering in his gilded ruche, Fawn upon the piano keys, Flatter till they answer back Through the scale of centuries, Difference between white and black. Winds like hurricanes of light Change the blackest vacuums, To a light-barred avenue -- Semitones of might and right; Then, from matter, life comes. Down that lengthy avenue Leading us we know not where, Sudden views creep through the air; Oh the keys we stumble through, Jungles splashed with violent light, Promenades all hard and bright, Long tails like the swish of seas, Avenues of piano keys, Meaning comes to bind the whole, Fingers separate from thumbs, Soon the shapeless tune comes: Bestial efforts at man's soul, What though notes are false and shrill -- Black streets tumbling down a hill? Fundamentally I am you, and you are me -- Octaves fall as emptily. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BUCOLIC COMEDY: EARLY SPRING by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: FLEECING TIME by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: FOX TROT by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR MAID by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: SERENADE by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: SPINNING SONG by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: SPRING by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: THE BEAR by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: THE DOLL by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: THE FOX; FOR ANN PEARN by EDITH SITWELL BUCOLIC COMEDY: WHY by EDITH SITWELL ELEGY: THE GHOST WHOSE LIPS WERE WARM; FOR GEOFFREY GORER by EDITH SITWELL |
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