No Swan So Fine

Selected Poems (1935)

“No water so still as thedead fountains of Versailles.” No swan,with swart blind look askanceand gondoliering legs, so fineas chintz china one with fawn-brown eyes and toothed goldcollar on to show whose bird it was.

Lodged in the Louis Fifteenthcandelabrum-tree of cockscomb-tinted buttons, dahlias,sea-urchins, and everlastings,it perches on the branching foamof polished sculpturedflowersÐat ease and tall. The king is dead.

“No Swan So Fine” From Selected Poems (1935)