4th July, 1882, Malines. Midnight
4th July, 1882, Malines. Midnight
Original Text
J. K. Stephen, Lapsus Calami, new edn. (Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes, 1891), p. 36. PR 5473 S4L3 1891 Robarts Library.
2Who in the murky middle of the night,
3Designing to renew the foul pursuits
4In which thy life is passed, ill-favoured wight,
5And wishing on the platform to alight
6Where thou couldst mingle with thy fellow brutes,
7Didst walk the carriage floor (a leprous sight),
8As o'er the sky some baleful meteor shoots:
9Upon my slippered foot thou didst descend,
10Didst rouse me from my slumbers mad with pain,
11And laughedst loud for several minutes' space.
12Oh may'st thou suffer tortures without end:
13May fiends with glowing pincers rend thy brain,
14And beetles batten on thy blackened face!
Notes
1] Title: Malines is Mechlin, Belgium. An unknown Belgian, at midnight getting off the train onto a railway platform to chum with his buddies, appears to have stepped on the maddened poet's foot in a rush to leave the car. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1891
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme
Form