 | Imperishable Fiction: An Inquiry into the Short Life of the
'Best Sellers' Reveals the Methods which Brought into Being the Novels that
Endure |  |
BALLADE OF PERFUMES
Haunting the air float perfumes of all time,
Fantoms of nard anointing unknown kings,
Ghosts of the incense circling orient clime,
Wraiths of the myrrh that clouded Nike's wings.
Cinnamon, aloes, champak—spicy things
Strange to the nostrils freight each sunny ray:
To me more pregnant is the storm that brings
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Fantoms of nard anointing unknown kings,
Ghosts of the incense circling orient clime,
Wraiths of the myrrh that clouded Nike's wings.
Cinnamon, aloes, champak—spicy things
Strange to the nostrils freight each sunny ray:
To me more pregnant is the storm that brings
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Jinn of the East, prevade our smoke and grime,
Heavy with musk that wreathed the tombs of Mings,
Flaunting about our streets of nauseous slime
Sandalwood, jinko's sacred offerings,
Swooning patchouli, fragrancy that clings—
Seeking to drug our senses to their sway:
To me more potent is the spume that flings
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Heavy with musk that wreathed the tombs of Mings,
Flaunting about our streets of nauseous slime
Sandalwood, jinko's sacred offerings,
Swooning patchouli, fragrancy that clings—
Seeking to drug our senses to their sway:
To me more potent is the spume that flings
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Jasmine and rose have long been held sublime;
Odorous rapture high in the orchid swings;
Out of exotic petal, leaf, and cyme,
Lovely, alive, the clever pander wrings
Attars to tempt all vain soft overlings—
Essenced delight for all with purse to pay:
To me all-priceless is the brine that stings,
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Odorous rapture high in the orchid swings;
Out of exotic petal, leaf, and cyme,
Lovely, alive, the clever pander wrings
Attars to tempt all vain soft overlings—
Essenced delight for all with purse to pay:
To me all-priceless is the brine that stings,
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
ENVOY
Flora, although your wood-and-meadow springsRavish and witch when flowered fresh by May,
How brief their spell: forever Triton sings
The tang and tingle of the clean salt spray.
Richard Butler Glaenzer
| Imperishable Fiction: An Inquiry into the Short Life of the
'Best Sellers' Reveals the Methods which Brought into Being the Novels that
Endure | |