Page:Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers (1923, c1916).djvu/15



PROEM

(Introducing some of Hermione's Friends)

 I visited one night, of late, Thought's Underworld, the Brainstorm Slum, The land of Futile Piffledom; A salon weird where congregate Freak, Nut and Bug and Psychic Bum.

There, there, they sit and cerebrate: The fervid Pote who never potes, Great Artists, Male or She, that Talk But scorn the Pigment and the chalk, And Cubist sculptors wild as Goats. Theosophists and Swamis, too, Musicians mad as Hatters be— (E'en puzzled Hatters, two or three!) Tame Anarchists, a dreary crew, Squib Socialists too damp to sosh, Fake Hobohemians steeped in suds, Glib Females in Artistic Duds With Captive Husbands cowed and gauche. [1]