101 Exiles

Like beautiful bodies of the dead, who had not grown old and they shut them with tears, in a magnificent mausoleum, with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet — that is how desires look that have passed without fulfillment;  without one of them having achieved a night of sensual delight, or a moonlit morn.

Phone for the fish knives, Norman As cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. Are the requisites all in the toilet? The frills round the cutlets can wait Till the girl has replenished the cruets And switched on the logs in the grate. It's ever so close in the lounge dear, But the vestibule's comfy for tea And Howard is riding on ho...

  That was the year when he stayed Without work, for a living played Cards, or backgammon; or borrowed and never paid. He was offered a place at a small Stationer’s, three pounds a month. It didn’t suit him. It was not decent pay at all. He refused it without hesitation; He was twenty-five, and of good education. Two or three shillings he made, more or less. From cards and backgammon what could a...

The nicest child I ever knew Was Charles Augustus Fortescue. He never lost his cap, or tore His stockings or his pinafore:    In eating Bread he made no Crumbs,    He was extremely fond of sums, To which, however, he preferred The Parsing of a Latin Word— He sought, when it was within his power, For information twice an hour, And as for finding Mutton-Fat Unappatising, far from that! He often, at...

She kept her songs, they kept so little space, The covers pleased her: One bleached from lying in a sunny place, One marked in circles by a vase of water, One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her,  And coloured, by her daughter - So they had waited, till, in widowhood She found them, looking for something else, and stood Relearning how each frank submissive chord Had ushered in Word after sprawl...

Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun, What strenuous singles we played after tea, We in the tournament - you against me! Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, How...

'This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed The whole time he was at the Bodies, till They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed, Fall to within five inches of the sill, Whose window shows a strip of building land, Tussocky, littered. 'Mr Bleaney took My bit of garden properly in hand.' Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook Behind the door, no room for books or bags -- 'I'll take it.' S...