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THE EDITION OF THIS
BOOK IS LIMITED FOR
ENGLAND TO 200 COPIES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO MARCEL SCHWOB IN FRIENDSHIP AND ADMIRATION
WITH DECORATIONS BY CHARLES
RICKETTS
LONDON MDCCCXCIV
ELKIN MATHEWS AND JOHN LANE , AT THE SIGN OF THE BODLEY
HEAD.
I
n a dim corner of my room
for longer than my fancy thinks
A
beautiful and silent
sphinx has watched me through the shifting gloom.
I
nviolate and immobile she
does not rise she does not stir
F
or silver moons are
naught to her and naught to her the suns that reel .
R
ed follows grey across
the air the waves of moonlight ebb and flow
B
ut with the dawn she does
not go and in the night-time she is there.
D
awn follows dawn and
nights grow old and all the while this curious cat
L
ies couching on the
chinese mat with eyes of satin rimmed with gold ,
U
pon the mat she lies and
leers and on the tawny throat of her
F
lutters the soft and
silky fur or ripples to her pointed ears .
C
ome forth my lovely
seneschal ! so somnolent, so statuesque !
C
ome forth you exquisite
grotesque ! half woman and half animal !
C
ome forth my lovely
languorous sphinx ! and put your head upon my knee !
A
nd let me stroke your
throat and see your body spotted like the lynx !
A
nd let me touch those
curving claws of yellow ivory and grasp
T
he tail that like a
monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws !
the sphinx
A
thousand weary centuries
are thine while i have hardly seen
S
ome twenty summers cast
their green for autumn’s gaudy liveries .
B
ut you can read the
hieroglyphs on the great sandstone obelisks ,
A
nd you have talked with
basilisks, and you have looked on hippogriffs .
O
tell me, were you
standing by when isis to osiris knelt ?
A
nd did you watch the
egyptian melt her union for antony
A
nd drink the jewel-
drunken wine and bend her head in mimic awe
T
o see the huge proconsul
draw the salted tunny from the brine ?
A
nd did you mark the
cyprian kiss white adon on his catafalque ?
A
nd did you follow
amenalk, the god of heliopolis ?
A
nd did you talk with
thoth, and did you hear the moon-horned io weep ?
A
nd know the painted kings
who sleep beneath the wedge-shaped pyramid ?
L
ift up your large black
satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks !
F
awn at my feet fantastic
sphinx ! and sing me all your memories !
S
ing to me of the jewish
maid who wandered with the holy child ,
A
nd how you led them
through the wild, and how they slept beneath your shade .
the sphinx
S
ing to me of that odorous
green eve when couching by the marge
Y
ou heard from adrian’s
gilded barge the laughter of antinous
A
nd lapped the stream and
fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare
T
he ivory body of that
rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth !
the sphinx
S
ing to me of the
labyrinth in which the twy-formed bull was stalled !
S
ing to me of the night
you crawled across the temple’s granite plinth
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