POEMS CLIVE BELL Printed & published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond, Surrey. 1921 CONTENTS _THE_ CARD HOUSE LETTER TO A LADY I _TO_ A.V.S. WITH A BOOK MYSELF TO MYSELF SPRING REPLY TO MRS. JOWITT _TO_ GERALD SHOVE MARCH APRIL JUNE OCTOBER DECEMBER LETTER TO A LADY II TO LOPOKOVA DANCING AFTER AS CLEPIADES THE LAST INFIRMITY _ΠΑΝΤΩΝ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΑΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΑΒΟΛΗ._ PREFACE Most or these verses have appeared in the papers--_The Nation, New Statesman, Cambridge Magazine_--to the editors of which I tender customary dues. Also, in 1917, a dozen were brought together to make a little book, _Ad Familiares_, of which a hundred copies were printed privately. Of these seventy were immediately distributed amongst my friends, while the remaining thirty have drifted into the hands of curious amateurs who wrote and asked for them. My stock is now exhausted; but apparently the stock of amateurs is not: for, from time to time, still reach me civil requests for a copy. What can I do? On the one hand, my vanity is outraged by the idea of people anxious but unable to read me; on the other, I am too mean to print for their benefit at my own expense. What I have done is to accept with joy an offer by the Hogarth Press to publish a complete edition of my poems--seventeen in number. Thus, in future, without being at pains to write a flattering letter, and at a trifling cost, any amateur can acquire the works of an extremely rare poet. C. B. _THE_ CARD HOUSE And so he laboured very hard, Piled little card on little card And laughed to see how well it stood, How all his work was sure and good And pretty as a minaret. He shone with pleasure. "Now I'll set A jolly cap to crown the thing." He clapped his hands. Perhaps the fling, Perhaps the shout was over-daring; It toppled down while he was staring. One had to titter, willy-nilly, To see him look so sad and silly. 1912. LETTER TO A LADY I A Gli Alberetti Venice April, 1913 Here in a garden under vines Translucent in the mid-day sun, Washing, green shutters, and the lines Of the _Salute_, which is fun And pure baroque to men of taste, I'm waiting--while the pot-boy chaste Or chastish since Ignatius Chowne And J. A. Symonds to this town Have taught Italian history--waiting, I say, while he is regulating A "_conto_" of 12.50-Change For 50 lire; it is strange In "_tutto il viale bello_" In which the shops are small but thrifty There's not a single honest fellow To furnish 37.50.