REVERSION by JOHN COWPER POWYS

Yes it is surely true
That I who loved with you
That magic Beardsley book
With its Sidonian look
And those androgynous masks that smirk and grin,
Seraphic imps of sin;
That I who muttered my mystic credo
In the Cathedral of Toledo
And traced the arabesques of doom
On the last Caesar's tomb,
And thro' the rose-parterres
Caught Babylonian airs,
And 'twixt the kneeling mutes
Heard Carthaginian flutes;
Am now content to let all go
And plant geraniums in a row
And with my lady's piano-tuner
Wish that the holidays came sooner!

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