Webster was much possessed by death<\/p>\n
And saw the skull beneath the skin;<\/p>\n
And breastless creatures under ground<\/p>\n
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.<\/p>\n
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls<\/p>\n
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!<\/p>\n
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs<\/p>\n
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.<\/p>\n
Donne, I suppose, was such another<\/p>\n
Who found no substitute for sense,<\/p>\n
To seize and clutch and penetrate;<\/p>\n
Expert beyond experience,<\/p>\n
He knew the anguish of the marrow<\/p>\n
The ague of the skeleton;<\/p>\n
No contact possible to flesh<\/p>\n
Allayed the fever of the bone.<\/p>\n
. . . . .<\/p>\n
Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye<\/p>\n
Is underlined for emphasis;<\/p>\n
Uncorseted, her friendly bust<\/p>\n
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.<\/p>\n
The couched Brazilian jaguar<\/p>\n
Compels the scampering marmoset<\/p>\n
With subtle effluence of cat;<\/p>\n
Grishkin has a maisonnette;<\/p>\n
The sleek Brazilian jaguar<\/p>\n
Does not in its arboreal gloom<\/p>\n
Distil so rank a feline smell<\/p>\n
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.<\/p>\n
And even the Abstract Entities<\/p>\n
Circumambulate her charm;<\/p>\n
But our lot crawls between dry ribs<\/p>\n
To keep our metaphysics warm.<\/p>\n
1918, 1919<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n
Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot | Poetry Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin; And breastless creatures under ground Leaned backward with a lipless grin. Daffodil bulbs instead of balls Stared from the sockets of the eyes! He knew that thought clings round dead limbs Tightening its lusts and luxuries Continue reading