The World’s Tragedy

50 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. Whose lascivious appetite Is most swiftly set alight By their beauty or their wealth, By their passion or their weakness, In sheer lust of hate, it may be ; In the open or by stealth, By their slenderness or sleekness. For harlot worn and blubbing baby Nineteen centuries shall see Life run horizontally. 2ND NYMPH Soul shall follow body’s station. They shall cling to degradation, Dance to the clank of the chains that eat Deep ulcers in their fettered feet. Lock love the dove in a close cage, And loose the tiger marriage : To the camel of joy be a needle’s eye, And a wolf’s-throat to monogamy. Youth’s lusty god shall turn them sick, While they dote on age’s gilded stick. Beauty shall shiver in the cold While they warm their buttocks at the fire