Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEMON LOVERS by ELINOR WYLIE

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE PEACOCK AND THE MOCKING-BIRD
Last Line: EVADES THEM BOTH, AND IS NOT MISSED.
The peacock and the mocking-bird
Cry forever in her breast;
Public libraries have blurred
The pages of his palimpsest.

He wanders lonely as a cloud
In chevelure of curled perruque;
Masked assassins in a crowd
Strangle the uxorious duke.
Castilian facing Lucifer,

Juan does not remove his cap;
Unswaddled infantile to her
His soul lies kicking in her lap.

While she, transported by the wind,
Mercutio has clasped and kissed. . . .
Like quicksilver, her absent mind
Evades them both, and is not missed.



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