Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/96

 Cotillions of smoke swirl the curtains and walls
 * By a swart old Tertullian, all gnarled and knotty;

And then in quadrilles, as it stifles and crawls
 * On a muscular torso by Buonarotti.

Here Leviathan gores through a shock of harpoons—
 * There, Lazarus mumbles his crust on the sod—

Afar, in this carnival dance of cartoons,
 * Hypatia glares on the crucified God!

Here, Scanderberg gashes the Ottemite van—
 * There, the dulcimer damsel of Kubla is heard—

Hard by, a neat sketch of the crafty old man
 * We have sent to inveigle Napoleon the Third.

There are foils on the arras and shields on the stair,
 * While an arquebuse bosses the lank balustrade;

And trailing just over that worm-eaten chair
 * Is a woman’s white dress with its bodice and braid.

The visions of youth are the wizards of thought,
 * No matter how gusty, no matter how good;

How many have married the woman they sought—
 * How seldom we marry the woman we should!