Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/129

 THE PANTOMIME "SUPER" TO HIS MASK.


 * AST empty shell!
 * Impertinent, preposterous abortion:
 * With vacant stare,
 * And ragged hair,

And every feature out of all proportion! Embodiment of echoing inanity! Excellent type of simpering insanity! Unwieldy, clumsy nightmare of humanity!
 * I ring thy knell!


 * To-night thou diest,

Beast that destroy'st my heaven-born identity!
 * Nine weeks of nights,
 * Before the lights,

Swamped in thine own preposterous nonentity, I've been ill-treated, cursed, and thrashed diurnally, Credited for the smile you wear externally— I feel disposed to smash thy face, infernally,
 * As there thou liest!


 * I've been thy brain:

I've been the brain that lit thy dull concavity!
 * The human race
 * Invest my face

With thine expression of unchecked depravity,