Nudes, stark and glistening, Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces And raging limbs Whirl over the floor one fire; For a shirt verminously busy Yon soldier tore from his throat With oaths Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice, And soon the shirt was aflare Over the candle he'd lit while we lay. Then we all sprang up and stript To hunt the verminous brood. Soon like a demons' pantomime This plunge was raging. See the silhouettes agape, See the gibbering shadows Mixed with the baffled arms on the wall. See Gargantuan hooked fingers Pluck in supreme flesh To smutch supreme littleness. See the merry limbs in that Highland fling Because some wizard vermin willed To charm from the quiet this revel When our ears were half lulled By the dark music Blown from Sleep's trumpet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PREFACE TO ERINNA'S POEMS by ANTIPATER OF SIDON WORLD-MILLER by FRANCES BARBER THE DISAPPOINTED TENDERFOOT by EARL ALONZO BRININSTOOL THE JOLLY BEGGARS; A CANTATA RECITATIVO by ROBERT BURNS THE WEARY PUND O' TOW by ROBERT BURNS SONG OF THE GREEKS by THOMAS CAMPBELL MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET: ETERNITY SINGS ALONE by THOMAS CAMPION |