When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
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When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
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The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
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And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
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Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
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And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
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Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
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I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
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And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
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And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
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To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
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To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
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To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"-
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It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
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I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
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I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black. |