Living

The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Cubist Nude)

by Carolyn Wells 1862–1942

From The Re-echo Club

Living

Square eyelids that hide like a jewel;
Ten heads,--though I sometimes count more;
Six mouths that are cubic and cruel;
Of mixed arms and legs, twenty-four;
Descending in Symbolic glories
Of lissome triangles and squares;
Oh, mystic and subtle Dolores,
Our Lady of Stairs.

You descend like an army with banners,
In a cyclone of wrecked parasols.
You look like a mob with mad manners
Or a roystering row of Dutch dolls.
Oh, Priestess of Cubical passion,
Oh, Deification of Whim,
You seem to walk down in the fashion
That lame lobsters swim.

✦ ✦ ✦

A parody by Carolyn Wells, written in the manner of Algernon Swinburne as a contribution to the imagined Re-Echo Club (Cubist Nude).

MLA

Wells, Carolyn. “The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Cubist Nude).” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/309/.

Chicago

Wells, Carolyn. “The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Cubist Nude).” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/309/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Carolyn Wells