In Residence

TWO SONNETS IN PRAISE OF A PUBLISHER, WHO SOUGHT TO INFECT OUR YOUTH WITH HIS NOXIOUS WARES The ordure of this goat, who is called ‘* Master Leonard.” —ELIPHAZz LEVI. He’s the man for muck.— BROWNING. I. SMALL coffin-worms that burrow in thy brain Writhe with delight; thy rotten body teems With all infesting vermin, as beseems The mirror of an obscene mind. In vain Thy misbegotten brutehood shirks the pain Of its avenging leprosies: death steams In all thy rank foul atmosphere: the gleams Of phosphorescent putrefaction wane. Thy sordid hands reach through the filth to snatch The offal money of a prurient swarm. Thy liar’s tongue licks liquid dung to hatch From fetid ulcers with its slimy warm Venom some fouler vermin, in their nest Thy rotten heart and thy polluting breast! 72