We caught the tread of dancing feet, We loitered down the moonlit street, And stopped beneath the Harlot's house. Inside, above the din and fray, We heard the loud musicians play The 'Treues Liebes Herz' of Strauss. Like strange mechanical grotesques, Making fantastic arabesques, The shadows raced across the blind. We watched the ghostly dancers spin To sound of horn and violin, Like black leaves wheeling in the wind. Like wire-pulled automatons, Slim silhouetted skeletons Went sidling through the slow quadrille, Then took each other by the hand, And danced a stately saraband; Their laughter echoed thin and shrill. Sometimes a clock-work puppet pressed A phantom lover to her breast, Sometimes they seemed to try and sing, Sometimes a horrible Marionette Came out, and smoked its cigarette Upon the steps like a live thing. Then turning to my love I said, 'The dead are dancing with the dead, The dust is whirling with the dust.' But she, she heard the violin, And left my side, and entered in; Love passed into the house of Lust. Then suddenly the tune went false, The dancers wearied of the waltz, The shadows ceased to wheel and whirl, And down the long and silent street, The dawn with silver-sandalled feet, Crept like a frightened girl. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FOOL, A FOUL THING, A DISTRESSFUL LUNATIC by MARIANNE MOORE TO A MAN WORKING HIS WAY THROUGH THE CROWD by MARIANNE MOORE HIS MOTHER'S SERVICE TO OUR LADY by FRANCOIS VILLON BABY MAY by WILLIAM COX BENNETT THE MILKMAID'S SONG by SYDNEY THOMPSON DOBELL HERMES OF THE WAYS by HILDA DOOLITTLE THE PICTURE OF LITTLE T.C. IN A PROSPECT OF FLOWERS by ANDREW MARVELL TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 8. DEPARTURE by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE |