Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/417



In heaven's name, who's been ravaging Our sanctum? There the lamp lies dashed To pieces, curtain dragged to floor, pen smashed, And on the mantelpiece the ink pot splashed—

[clapping him on the shoulder].

This wreck's the first announcement of my spring; No more behind drawn curtains I will sit, Making pen poetry with lamp alit; My dull domestic poetising's done, I'll walk by day, and glory in the sun: My spring is come, my soul has broken free, Action henceforth shall be my poetry.

Make poetry of what you please for me; But how if Mrs. Halm should take amiss Your breaking of her furniture to pieces?

What!—she, who lays her daughters and her nieces Upon the altar of her boarders' bliss,— She frown at such a bagatelle as this?

[angrily].

It's utterly outrageous and unfair, And compromises me as well as you! But that's her business, settle it with her. The lamp was mine, tho', shade and burner too—