IN the huge and glassy room Pantaloon, with his tail-feather Spangled like the weather, Panached, too, with many a plume, Watched the monkey Fanfreluche, Shivering in his gilded ruche, Fawn upon the piano keys, Flatter till they answer back Through the scale of centuries, Difference between white and black. Winds like hurricanes of light Change the blackest vacuums, To a light-barred avenue -- Semitones of might and right; Then, from matter, life comes. Down that lengthy avenue Leading us we know not where, Sudden views creep through the air; Oh the keys we stumble through, Jungles splashed with violent light, Promenades all hard and bright, Long tails like the swish of seas, Avenues of piano keys, Meaning comes to bind the whole, Fingers separate from thumbs, Soon the shapeless tune comes: Bestial efforts at man's soul, What though notes are false and shrill -- Black streets tumbling down a hill? Fundamentally I am you, and you are me -- Octaves fall as emptily. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO AMARANTHA, THAT SHE WOULD DISHEVEL HER HAIR by RICHARD LOVELACE AT THE CANNON'S MOUTH by HERMAN MELVILLE THE MOTHER'S LAMENT by ST. CLAIR ADAMS ON F----- & S----- by WILLIAM BLAKE DIPSYCHUS by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH |