Introducing Irony (Version 2)

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span> <h3>II</h3> <h2 class="nobreak">UNLITERARY AND SHAMELESS</h2> <blockquote> <div class="hangingindent"> <p><i>A young woman who has been renounced by her lover, because of her lack of culture, answers his derision.</i></p> </div> </blockquote> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span class="giant">Y</span>OUR cloistered naughtiness</div> <div class="verse">Makes me as boisterous</div> <div class="verse">As a savage attending</div> <div class="verse">A minstrel-show of regrets.</div> <div class="verse">The pampered carefulness</div> <div class="verse">With which you distil a series</div> <div class="verse">Of standardized perfumes from life</div> <div class="verse">Takes its promenade</div> <div class="verse">Between the realms of sanity and madness.</div> <div class="verse">You are too precise to be quite sane</div> <div class="verse">And too evasive to be insane,</div> <div class="verse">And all that you have left me</div> <div class="verse">Is a mood of windy sadness&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">Emotions becoming verbose</div> <div class="verse">In a last thin effort</div> <div class="verse">To persuade themselves that they loved</div> <div class="verse">A jewel that slipped from your fingers.</div> <div class="verse">Your mind is a limpid warehouse</div> <div class="verse">Filled with other mens&#8217; creations,</div> <div class="verse">And you pilfer a bit from each,</div> <div class="verse">Disguising the scheme of your culture.</div> <div class="verse">I would rather be a naked fool</div> <div class="verse">Than a full-gowned erudite</div> <div class="verse">Imitation of other mens&#8217; hands.</div> <div class="verse">I shall marry a desperado</div> <div class="verse">And give him strength with which to paint</div> <div class="verse">Black angels and muscular contortions</div> <div class="verse">On panels of taffeta.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />