Introducing Irony (Version 2)

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">AN ACROBAT, A VIOLINIST, AND<br/> A CHAMBERMAID CELEBRATE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><div class="drop-cap2">GEOMETRY of souls.</div> </div> <div class="verse">Dispute the roundness of gesturing flesh;</div> <div class="verse">Angles, and oblongs, and squares</div> <div class="verse">Slip with astounding precision</div> <div class="verse">Into the throes of lifted elbows;</div> <div class="verse">Into the searching perpendicular</div> <div class="verse">Of fingers rising to more than ten;</div> <div class="verse">Into the salient straightness of lips;</div> <div class="verse">Into the rock-like protest of knees.</div> <div class="verse">The flesh of human beings</div> <div class="verse">Is a beginner&#8217;s-lesson in mathematics.</div> <div class="verse">The pliant stupidity of flesh</div> <div class="verse">Mentions the bungling effort</div> <div class="verse">Of a novice to understand</div> <div class="verse">The concealed mathematics of the soul.</div> <div class="verse">Men will tell you that an arm</div> <div class="verse">Rising to the sky</div> <div class="verse">Indicates strident emotion;</div> <div class="verse">Reveals a scream of authority;</div> <div class="verse">Expresses the longing of a red engine</div> <div class="verse">Known as the heart;</div> <div class="verse">Rises like a flag-pole</div> <div class="verse">From which the mind signals.</div> <div class="verse">Men will fail to tell you</div> <div class="verse">That an arm rising to the sky</div> <div class="verse">Takes a straight line of the soul</div> <div class="verse">And strives to comprehend it;</div> <div class="verse">That the arm is a solid tunnel</div> <div class="verse">For a significance that shoots beyond it.</div> <div class="verse">The squares, and angles, and oblongs of the soul,</div> <div class="verse">The commencing lines of the soul</div> <div class="verse">Are pestered by a debris of words.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Men shovel away the words:</div> <div class="verse">Falteringly in youth;</div> <div class="verse">Tamely and pompously in middle age;</div> <div class="verse">Vigorously in old age.</div> <div class="verse">Death takes the last shovel-full away:</div> <div class="verse">Death is accommodating.</div> <div class="verse">Nothing is wise except outline.</div> <div class="verse">The content held by outline</div> <div class="verse">Is a slave in the mass.</div> <div class="verse">Men with few outlines in their minds</div> <div class="verse">Try to give the outlines dignity</div> <div class="verse">By moulding them into towers two inches high,</div> <div class="verse">In which they sit in lonely, talkative importance.</div> <div class="verse">Men with many outlines</div> <div class="verse">Break them into more, and thus</div> <div class="verse">Playing, come with quickened breath</div> <div class="verse">To hints of spiritual contours.</div> <div class="verse">Seek only the decoration;</div> <div class="verse">Avoid the embryonic yelping</div> <div class="verse">Of argument, and scan your patterns</div> <div class="verse">For angles, oblongs, and squares of the soul.</div> <div class="verse">I overheard this concentrated prelude</div> <div class="verse">While listening to an acrobat, a violinist, and a chamber-maid</div> <div class="verse">Celebrate the removal of their flesh.</div> <div class="verse">While playing, the violinist&#8217;s upper arm</div> <div class="verse">Bisected the middle of the acrobat&#8217;s head</div> <div class="verse">As the latter knelt to hear,</div> <div class="verse">And the chamber-maid</div> <div class="verse">Stretched straight on the floor, with her forehead</div> <div class="verse">Touching the tips of the violinist&#8217;s feet.</div> <div class="verse">Motion knelt to receive</div> <div class="verse">The counselling touch of sound,</div> <div class="verse">And vigour, in a searching line,</div> <div class="verse">Reclined at the feet of sound,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Buying a liquid release.</div> <div class="verse">Angles of arms and straight line of bodies</div> <div class="verse">Made a decoration.</div> <div class="verse">The violinist&#8217;s music</div> <div class="verse">Fell upon this decoration;</div> <div class="verse">Erased the vague embellishment of flesh;</div> <div class="verse">And came to angles, squares, and oblongs</div> <div class="verse">Of the soul.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />