Metallic waves of people jar Through crackling green toward the bar Where on the tables chattering-white The sharp drinks quarrel with the light. Those coloured muslin blinds the smiles, Shroud wooden faces in their wiles -- Sometimes they splash like water (you Yourself reflected in their hue). The conversation loud and bright Seems spinal bars of shunting light In firework-spurting greenery. O complicate machinery For building Babel, iron crane Beneath your hair, that blue-ribbed mane In noise and murder like the sea Without its mutability! Outside the bar where jangling heat Seems out of tune and off the beat -- A concertina's glycerin Exudes, and mirrors in the green Your soul: pure glucose edged with hints Of tentative and half-soiled tints.
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First published in A Miscellany of Poetry, 1919, ed. W. Kean SeymourText Authorship:
- by Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Portrait of a Barmaid", 2009 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-11-21
Line count: 22
Word count: 119