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The Harlot's House

Fairytales

The Devoted Friend

The Happy Prince

The Nightingale and the Rose

The Remarkable Rocket

The Selfish Giant


Poetry

Ave Imperatrix

Ave Maria Gratia Plena

Fabien Dei Franchi

Flower of Love

From 'The Burden Of Itys'

From 'The Garden Of Eros'

Greece

Libertatis Sacra Fames

Madonna Mia

Magdalen Walks

On The Massacre Of The Christians In Bulgaria

Phedre

Portia

Roses And Rue

Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

The Grave Of Shelley

The Harlot's House

Theocritus - A Villanelle

To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems







The Harlot's House



We caught the tread of dancing feet,
We loitered down the moonlit street,
And stopped beneath the harlot's house.

Inside, above the din and fray,
We heard the loud musicians play
The 'Treues Liebes Herz' of Strauss.

Like strange mechanical grotesques,
Making fantastic arabesques,
The shadows raced across the blind.

We watched the ghostly dancers spin
To sound of horn and violin,
Like black leaves wheeling in the wind.

Like wire-pulled automatons,
Slim silhouetted skeletons
Went sidling through the slow quadrille,

Then took each other by the hand,
And danced a stately saraband;
Their laughter echoed thin and shrill.

Sometimes a clockwork puppet pressed
A phantom lover to her breast,
Sometimes they seemed to try to sing.

Sometimes a horrible marionette
Came out, and smoked its cigarette
Upon the steps like a live thing.

Then, turning to my love, I said,
'The dead are dancing with the dead,
The dust is whirling with the dust.'

But she - she heard the violin,
And left my side, and entered in:
Love passed into the house of lust.

Then suddenly the tune went false,
The dancers wearied of the waltz,
The shadows ceased to wheel and whirl.

And down the long and silent street,
The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet,
Crept like a frightened girl.





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