At the violet hour, when the eyes and back | 215 |
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits | |
Like a taxi throbbing waiting, | |
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, | |
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see | |
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives | 220 |
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea, | |
The typist home at tea-time, clears her breakfast, lights | |
Her stove, and lays out food in tins. | |
Out of the window perilously spread | |
Her drying combinations touched by the sun’s last rays, | 225 |
On the divan are piled (at night her bed) | |
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays. | |
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs | |
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest— | |
I too awaited the expected guest. | 230 |
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, | |
A small house-agent’s clerk, with one bold stare, | |
One of the low on whom assurance sits | |
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire. | |
The time is now propitious, as he guesses, | 235 |
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, | |
Endeavours to engage her in caresses | |
Which still are unreproved, if undesired. | |
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once; | |
Exploring hands encounter no defence; | 240 |
His vanity requires no response, | |
And makes a welcome of indifference. | |
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all | |
Enacted on this same divan or bed; | |
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall | 245 |
And walked among the lowest of the dead.) | |
Bestows one final patronizing kiss, | |
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit… | |
She turns and looks a moment in the glass, | |
Hardly aware of her departed lover; | 250 |
Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: | |
“Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.” | |
When lovely woman stoops to folly and | |
Paces about her room again, alone, | |
She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, | 255 |
And puts a record on the gramophone. |
Because awkward sex is fun and stuff.
Anyway, I NEED OPINIONS!!!
Its sort of a goal of mine to make little arts of the entire poem at some point before I die (and yes, I have only gotten as far as the Sybil and "April is the cruellest month") So, what sort of art media would you envision this scene in? Collage? Cartoon? Sketch? Painting? Mixed media? I know I want to tackle it, I just don't know how.
Definitely something visual... sketch? There is so much going on... Perhaps it could even be a cartoon, like one of those comics with a single caption?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorta leaning towards cartoon too, with tiresias narrating.
ReplyDelete