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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON BEING QUIZZED BY BALIEV by LEONARD BACON (1887-1954)

First Line: IN WHAT STRANGE LAND, INCOMPARABLE BUFFON
Last Line: IN THE QUEER THEATRE OF MY OWN SOUL?

In what strange land, incomparable buffoon,
Have you been impresario? I protest
I know that accent and that turn of jest,
Those features of a serio-comic moon,
Those blunt brows, by a cubist sculptor hewn,
Unwinking eyes, still roving without rest
Full of quaint malice, soon to be expressed,
That voice like the low notes of a bassoon.

Oh, well -- too well -- have I beheld that smile
Somewhere ere this, the passionless derision,
Real and momentary as a vision.
Where was it you performed the self-same role,
While I fled trembling up an endless aisle
In the queer theatre of my own soul?



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