A HOME-COMING 84
THE KISS 85
ON THE PROMENADE (MARCH WINDS: SEAFORD) 86
JUNE 87
TO —— 88
THE CASE OF PIERROT 89
POMPES FUNÈBRES 90
AH! YOU MOON 91
A LITTLE POEM ON SIN 92
HEART AND SOUL 93
THE SINGER’S JOURNEY 94
IV
BRIGHTON BEACH (WHIT-MONDAY, 1909) 99
BEAUGENCY-SUR-LOIRE 100
IN PICARDY 101
CALLE MEMO O LOREDAN 102
BARCELONA 103
JUILLAC-LE-COQ (CHARENTE) 104
ROADS 105
ENVOI (ARS LONGA) 106
_Part I_
_Streets_
Church Street wears ever a smile, from having watched bright belles
Coming home with young men, after balls, “at all hours.”
Its villas don’t mind; they say, “Go it, young swells,
We’ve been young, too!” But Ebenezer Street glowers.
Chapel deacons live here, with side whiskers and pompous wives,
Who play hymns on Sundays, and deeply deplore sinful acts.
They’re convinced that their neighbours lead scandalous private lives;
—That you and I ought to be shot, “if one knew all the facts.”
Goreham Street’s sad. Here lives old Jones the poet—
He knew Swinburne and Watts, and has letters from “dear Charlie Keene.”
Loo Isaacs lives here as well, and poor Captain Jowett:
And the “Goreham Street Murder” was over at number thirteen.
Now George Street (E.C.) strikes a cheerful and strenuous note;
It is full of live men of business, of ’buses and noise;
Of Surbiton gents, very sleek, in top-hat and fur coat;
And earnest young clerks who perspire, and take classes for boys.
But Audley Street has a calm and a gently fastidious air!
Here I shall live when I’m rich, with my wife and my car:
When we are pleased, we’ll never shout nor ruffle our hair,
And a lift of the eyebrow will show how annoyed we are.
This is where life is lived nobly and sweetly and well:
Here are beauty, all hardly-won things, and courage and love.
Why people worship the slums and the poor so, I can never tell,
For it’s virtue and baths and good cooking go hand in glove!
_Villas_
(_Leytonstone_)
All down Jamaica Road there are small bow windows
Jutting out neighbourly heads in the street,
And in each sits, framed, a quiet old woman.
These watch the couples who pass or meet,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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