Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ARSEHOLE by PAUL VERLAINE

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: IT IS SHY AS A GATHERED EYELET
Last Line: I FED THAT FAMISHED MOUTH MY AMBERGRIS
Subject(s): LOVE - EROTIC;

It is shy as a gathered eyelet
neatly worked in shrinking violet;
it is the dilating iris, tucked
away, a tightening throb when fucked.
It is a soiled and puckered hem,
the golden treasury's privy purse.
With all the colours of a bruise,
it is the fleck of blood in albumen.
I dreamed your body was an instrument
and this was the worn mouthpiece
to which my breathing lips were bent.
Each note pleaded to love a little longer,
longer, as though it was dying of hunger.
I fed that famished mouth my ambergris.




Home: PoetryExplorer.net