Poem: Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar

Updated May 6, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar

   Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire--nil nisi divinum stabile    est; caetera fumus--the gondola stopped, the old    palace was there, how charming its grey and pink--   goats and monkeys, with such hair too!--so the    countess passed on until she came through the    little park, where Niobe presented her with a    cabinet, and so departed. 

 Burbank crossed a little bridge Descending at a small hotel; Princess Volupine arrived, They were together, and he fell. 

 Defunctive music under sea Passed seaward with the passing bell Slowly: the God Hercules Had left him, that had loved him well. 

 The horses, under the axletree Beat up the dawn from Istria With even feet. Her shuttered barge Burned on the water all the day. 

 But this or such was Bleistein's way: A saggy bending of the knees And elbows, with the palms turned out, Chicago Semite Viennese. 

 A lustreless protrusive eye Stares from the protozoic slime At a perspective of Canaletto. The smoky candle end of time 

 Declines. On the Rialto once. The rats are underneath the piles. The jew is underneath the lot. Money in furs. The boatman smiles, 

 Princess Volupine extends A meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand To climb the waterstair. Lights, lights, She entertains Sir Ferdinand 

 Klein. Who clipped the lion's wings And flea'd his rump and pared his claws? Thought Burbank, meditating on Time's ruins, and the seven laws.