Sweeney Among the Nightingales¹

µoi, πεληγµαi kαiρíαν πληγὴν ἔσω.²

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees

Letting his arms hang down to laugh,

The zebra stripes along his jaw

Swelling to maculate³ giraffe.

 

The circles of the stormy moon

Slide westward toward the River Plate,⁴

Death and the Raven drift above

And Sweeney guards the hornèd gate.

 

Gloomy Orion and the Dog⁵

Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;

The person in the Spanish cape

Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees

 

Slips and pulls the table cloth

Overturns a coffee-cup,

Reorganized upon the floor

She yawns and draws a stocking up;

 

The silent man in mocha brown

Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes;

The waiter brings in oranges

Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;

 

The silent vertebrate in brown

Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;

Rachel née Rabinovitch

Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;⁶

 

She and the lady in the cape

Are suspect, thought to be in league;

Therefore the man with heavy eyes

Declines the gambit, shows fatigue,

 

Leaves the room and reappears

Outside the window, leaning in,

Branches of wistaria

Circumscribe a golden grin;

 

The host with someone indistinct

Converses at the door apart,

The nightingales are singing near

The Convent of the Sacred Heart,⁷

 

And sang within the bloody wood

When Agamemnon⁸ cried aloud,

And let their liquid siftings fall

To stain the stiff dishonoured shroud.