Eventail

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887 (Scarborough) – 1964 (Weedon Lois)



Lovely Semiramis
Closes her slanting eyes:
Dead is she long ago,
From her fan sliding slow
Parrot-bright fire's feathers
Gilded as June weathers,
Plumes like the greenest grass
Twinkle down; as they pass
Through the green glooms in Hell,
Fruits with a tuneful smell--
Grapes like an emerald rain
Where the full moon has lain,
Greengages bright as grass,
Melons as cold as glass
Piled on each gilded booth
Feel their cheeks growing smooth;
Apes in plumed head-dresses
Whence the bright heat hisses,
Nubian faces sly,
Pursing mouth, slanting eye,
Feel the Arabian
Winds floating from that fan:
See how each gilded face
Paler grows, nods apace:
'Oh, the fan's blowing
Cold winds.... It is snowing!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
56

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBAAAACCDDAAEFAAGGHIAAJJ
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 678
Words 119
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. more…

All Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell poems | Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell Books

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