Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FACADE: 8. FOUR IN THE MORNING, by EDITH SITWELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FACADE: 8. FOUR IN THE MORNING, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Cried the navy-blue ghost
Last Line: Rhinoceros-black (a flowing sea!).


CRIED the navy-blue ghost
Of Mr. Belaker
The allegro negro cocktail-shaker,
"Why did the cock crow,
Why am I lost,
Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd?
The tropical leaves are whispering white
As water; I race the wind in my flight.
The white lace houses are carried away
By the tide; far out they float and sway.
White is the nursemaid on the parade.
Is she real, as she flirts with me unafraid?
Such honeyed imbecility lies
In the eternal July skies
As in her giggling curls. In swirls
The houses fade, and drop in pearls.
I raced through the leaves as white as water . . .
Ghostly, flowed over the nursemaid, caught her,
Left her . . . edging the far-off sand
Is the foam of the sirens' Metropole and Grand,
And along the parade I am blown and lost,
Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd.
The guinea-fowl plumaged houses sleep . . .
On one, I saw the lone grass weep,
Where only the whimpering greyhound wind
Chased me, raced me, for what it could find."

And there in the black and furry boughs
How slowly, coldly, old Time grows,
Where the pigeons smelling of gingerbread,
And the spectacled owls so deeply read,
And the sweet ring-doves of curded milk,
Watch the Infanta's gown of silk
In the ghost-room tall where the governante
Gesticulates lente, and walks andante.
"Madam, Princesses must be obedient;
For a medicine now becomes expedient, --
Of five ingredients, -- a diapente,"
Said the governante, fading lente . . .
In at the window then looked he,
The navy-blue ghost of Mr. Belaker,
The allegro negro cocktail-shaker, --
And his flattened face like the moon saw she, --
Rhinoceros-black (a flowing sea!).





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