The Wooden Pegasus

RNEZT, O URNE B Z O , NS CHEVAUX DE BOIS . . SEVEN NURSERY S ONG S 1, OLD LADYF LY-AWAY . 11, GREASTN ORIN AN G D NORWICH. 111. FAT WILLIAM AND THE TRAINS IV. A PENNYFA RE TO BABYLON . V. THE B UTCHERS S HOP . . VI. THE KING OF CHINAS DAUGHTER . . VII. OLD KING PTOLEMY . . PAGE 41 CONTENTS SWITCHBACK . . . . TRAMS . . . BANK HOLIDAY I . . . BANK HOLIDAY I1 . . . SMAL T L A LK I . . SMAL T L A LK I1 . . . DANSON L S A GIGUE MESSALIN A A T MARGATE . PEDAGOGUES . . . SONG FR OM g4 THE Q UEEN OF PALMYR A . THE CHOIR-BOY R IDES ON THE SWITCH BACK . . . 4 APRICOT JA M . . . . . STOPPIN P G L ACE . . . . PORTRA O IT F A BARMAID . . . MATERIALI SM O R, PASTOR TAKES THE RESTAURAN C T A R F OR HEAVEN. THA IN S HEAVEN . . FOUR NOCTURNE S I. PROCESSIONS . 11. GAIETY 111. VACUUM . . IV. ET LON ENTEND A PEINE LEURS PAROLE S . I1 CONTENTS m TREAT S PAGB SINGERIE S UMMER afternoon in Hell Down the empty street it fell, Pantaloon and Scaramouche-Tongues like flames and shadows louche-Flickered down the street together In the spangled weather. Flames, bright singing-birds that pass, Whistled wares as shrill as grass Landscapes clear as glittering glass, Whistled all together Papagei, oh Papagei, Buy our greenest fruits, oh buy, Melons misty from the bloom Of mellow moons on some hot night, Melting in the August light Apples like an emerald shower Nectarines that falling boom On the grass in greenest gloom Peaches bright as parrots feather Glistening from the moons bower I3 SINGERIE - a Chequered like fritillaries, Fat and red are strawberries. Parrot-voices shrill together-Now they pelt each monkey-face Pantaloon with simian grace From the soft gloom till they smother Both the plumed head-dresses With the green fruit-gems that glitter Twinkling sharp sounds like a zither. Sharp each bird-tongue shrills and hisses, Parrot-voices shrieking bane -Down comes every spangled shutter With a sudden noise like rain. THE AVENUE I N 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, THE AVENUE m Long tails like the swish of seas, Avenue of piano keys, Meaning comes to bind the whole, Fingers separate from thumbs, Soon the shapeless tune comes Bestial efforts at mans 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.