Part 6 (2/2)

I feel all the anguish within me arise Of a s.h.i.+p in distress; The tempest, the rain, 'neath the lowering skies,

My body caress; At times, the calm pool or the mirror clear Of my despair!

The Joyous Defunct

Where snails abound--in a juicy soil, I will dig for myself a fathomless grave, Where at leisure mine ancient bones I can coil, And sleep--quite forgotten--like a shark 'neath the wave.

I hate every tomb--I abominate wills, And rather than tears from the world to implore, I would ask of the crows with their vampire bills To devour every bit of my carca.s.s impure.

Oh worms, without eyes, without ears, black friends!

To you a defunct-one, rejoicing, descends, Enlivened Philosophers--offspring of Dung!

Without any qualms, o'er my wreckage spread, And tell if some torment there still can be wrung For this soul-less old frame that is dead 'midst the dead!

The Broken Bell

How sweet and bitter, on a winter night, Beside the palpitating fire to list, As, slowly, distant memories alight, To sounds of chimes that sing across the mist.

Oh, happy is that bell with hearty throat, Which neither age nor time can e'er defeat, Which faithfully uplifts its pious note, Like an aged soldier on his beat.

For me, my soul is cracked, and 'mid her cares, Would often fill with her songs the midnight airs And oft it chances that her feeble moan

Is like the wounded warrior's fainting groan, Who by a lake of blood, 'neath bodies slain, In anguish falls, and never moves again.

Spleen

The rainy moon of all the world is weary, And from its urn a gloomy cold pours down, Upon the pallid inmates of the mortuary, And on the neighbouring outskirts of the town.

My wasted cat, in searching for a litter, Bestirs its mangy paws from post to post; (A poet's soul that wanders in the gutter, With the jaded voice of a s.h.i.+v'ring ghost).

The smoking pine-log, while the drone laments, Accompanies the wheezy pendulum, The while amidst a haze of dirty scents,

--Those fatal remnants of a sick man's room-- The gallant knave of hearts and queen of spades Relate their ancient amorous escapades.

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