586
PA RTI SA N REVIEW
Winthrop Palmer
PORTRAIT OF THE EMPEROR
AT WILLIAMSBURG
Burgher, a red cloth wrapped about his chin,
His cold eye-socket staring, ill at ease,
He magnifies number and dismembers man.
(Give him oil for his armies, Mephistopheles.)
At his palace are ladies of a lordless state
Trumped up in replicas of cotton finery,
For the torpid tip-staff and his puffing mate
Pay Sunday tribute to a park, and winery.
METAMORPHOSIS
Sky on the battlements, grey over grey,
The decent old city is falling fast,
A wrecking crew will cart it away,
The brown-stone front and the plaster cast,
The parlor suite and the mantel clock,
Jeremy Bentham, Hume and Locke.
Stars on the Avenue, grey over grey,
Flags creak in the Gothic stones,
Buttons, belts and a glove make way
To the office of compline, tierce or nones;
Here's the Church and there's the State,
Hold your ticket and watch the gate.
