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Poems 1918-21 :

including three portraits and four cantos
  
  
  
  
  
  

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I. I

Mr. Styrax

1

MR. HECATOMB STYRAX, the owner of a large estate
and of large muscles,
A "blue" and a climber of mountains, has married
at the age of 28,
He being at that age a virgin,
The term "virgo" being made male in mediaeval latinity;
His ineptitudes
Have driven his wife from one religious excess to another.
She has abandoned the vicar
For he was lacking in vehemence;
She is now the high-priestess
Of a modern and ethical cult,
And even now Mr. Styrax
Does not believe in aesthetics.

2

His brother has taken to gipsies,
But the son-in-law of Mr. H. Styrax
Objects to perfumed cigarettes.
In the parlance of Niccolo Macchiavelli,
"Thus things proceed in their circle";
And thus the empire is maintained.