Page:Harmonium - Wallace Stevens.djvu/58

This page has been validated.
Tuck tuck, while the flamingos flapped his bays.Sepulchral señors, bibbing pale mescal,Oblivious to the Aztec almanacs,Should make the intricate Sierra scan.And dark Brazilians in their cafés,Musing immaculate, pampean dits,Should scrawl a vigilant anthology,To be their latest, lucent paramour.These are the broadest instances. Crispin,Progenitor of such extensive scope,Was not indifferent to smart detail.The melon should have apposite ritual,Performed in verd apparel, and the peach,When its black branches came to bud, belle day,Should have an incantation. And again,When piled on salvers its aroma steepedThe summer, it should have a sacramentAnd celebration. Shrewd novitiatesShould be the clerks of our experience.
These bland excursions into time to come,Related in romance to backward flights,However prodigal, however proud,Contained in their afflatus the reproachThat first drove Crispin to his wandering.He could not be content with counterfeit,With masquerade of thought, with hapless wordsThat must belie the racking masquerade,With fictive flourishes that preordainedHis passion's permit, hang of coat, degreeOf buttons, measure of his salt. Such trashMight help the blind, not him, serenely sly.It irked beyond his patience. Hence it was,

60

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.