II.
A GAME OF CHESS
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished
throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited
vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out 80
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched
candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic
perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid— troubled,
confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by
the air
That freshened from the window, these
ascended 90
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the
coloured stone,
In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the
nightingale
100
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world
pursues,
"Jug Jug" to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room
enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her
hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely
still. 110
"My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad.
Stay with me.
"Speak to me. Why do you never speak.
Speak.
"What are you thinking of? What
thinking? What?
"I never know what you are thinking.
Think."
I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.
"What is that noise?"
The wind under
the door.
"What is that noise now? What is the
wind doing?"
Nothing again
nothing. 120
"Do
"You know nothing? Do you see nothing?
Do you remember
"Nothing?"
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
"Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing
in your head?"
But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It's so elegant
So intelligent
130
"What shall I do now? What shall I
do?"
I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
"With my hair down, so. What shall we do
to-morrow?
"What shall we ever do?"
The hot
water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock
upon the door.
When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
I didn't mince my words, I said to her
myself, 140
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit
smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that
money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was
there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice
set,
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at
you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of
poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a
good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others
will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I
said. 150
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and
give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it,
I said.
Others can pick and choose if you can't.
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack
of telling.
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so
antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long
face,
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she
said.
(She's had five already, and nearly died of
young George.) 160
The chemist said it would be alright, but
I've never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there
it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don't want
children?
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a
hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the
beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May.
Goonight. 170
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies,
good night, good night.
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