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174
PARTISAN REVIEW
THE FAIR FRIGIDITY
There was a lady fair and fairly bright,
Whose amiable manner charmed a knight;
She led him unmolested through the night,
A foolish knight.
Black were her eyes and both her lips choice red,
Her arms were rounded as was throat and head,
She led him like a bone that, startled, bled,
And soon was dead.
..
Never had stars beheld so white a path
As that which down she carried him at last;
Her smile was brilliant, hidden was her wrath,
A deadly bath.
Bathe in this stream, said she, your bones are white.
The knight stood ivory in the sweet moonlight.
Bathe in tllis stream, said she, feigned appetite
But hid her spite.
The knight, so fairly foolish, garnet-limbed,
Threw his strength fully, streaming toward her whim,
And once within the waters, bobbed to swim
Grasping the brim.
But she, so leonine and free, exclaimed
His vigor was not pure in one so maimed
By love, affection's druggist; he grew tamed
And felt ashamed.
·
Float in the languorous bath, cried she, her voice
Stemming an arrow through the midnight; moist
It entered in the kingdom of his choice,
A narrow noise.
0 love! cried he, make me of waters drunk!
And tossed his arms until his sinews shrunk,
His soul expanding to a molten chunk,
When down he sunk.
