Introducing Irony (Version 2)

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">IMPULSIVE DIALOGUE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">Will you, like other men,</div> <div class="indent">Offer me indigo indignities?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">Indigo indignities!</div> <div class="indent">The words are like a mermaid and a saint</div> <div class="indent">Doubting each other&#8217;s existence with a kiss.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">The words of most men kiss</div> <div class="indent">With satiated familiarity.</div> <div class="indent">Indigo is dark and vehement,</div> <div class="indent">But one word in place of two</div> <div class="indent">Angers barmaids and critics.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">Straining after originality</div> <div class="indent">You argue with its ghost!</div> <div class="indent">A simple beauty, like morning</div> <div class="indent">Harnessed by a wide sparkle</div> <div class="indent">And plodding into the hearts of men,</div> <div class="indent">Cannot reach your frantic juggling.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">I can appreciate</div> <div class="indent">The spontaneous redundancy of nature</div> <div class="indent">Without the aid of an echo</div> <div class="indent">From men who lack her impersonal size.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">The sweeping purchase of an evening</div> <div class="indent">By an army of stars;</div> <div class="indent">The bold incoherence of love;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</SPAN></span> <div class="indent">The peaceful mountain-roads of friendship&mdash;</div> <div class="indent">These things evade your dexterous epigrams!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">A statue, polished and large,</div> <div class="indent">Dominates when it stands alone.</div> <div class="indent">Placed in a huge profusion of statues</div> <div class="indent">Its outlines become humiliated.</div> <div class="indent">Simplicity demands one gesture</div> <div class="indent">And men give it endless thousands.</div> <div class="indent">Complexity wanders through a forest,</div> <div class="indent">Glimpsing details in the gloom.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">I do not crave the dainty pleasure</div> <div class="indent">Of chasing ghosts in a forest!</div> <div class="indent">Nor do I care to pluck</div> <div class="indent">Exaggerated mushrooms in the gloom.</div> <div class="indent">I have lost myself on roads</div> <div class="indent">Crossed by tossing hosts of men.</div> <div class="indent">Pain and anger have scorched our slow feet:</div> <div class="indent">Peace has washed our foreheads.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">Futility, massive and endless,</div> <div class="indent">Captures a stumbling grandeur</div> <div class="indent">Embalmed in history.</div> <div class="indent">In my forest you could see this</div> <div class="indent">From a distance and lose</div> <div class="indent">Your limited intolerance.</div> <div class="indent">Simplicity and subtlety</div> <div class="indent">At different times are backgrounds for each other,</div> <div class="indent">Changing with the position of our eyes.</div> <div class="indent">Death will burn your eyes</div> <div class="indent">With his taciturn complexity.</div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">Death will strike your eyes</div> <div class="indent">With his wild simplicity!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">Words are soldiers of fortune</div> <div class="indent">Hired by different ideas</div> <div class="indent">To provide an importance for life</div> <div class="indent">But within the glens of silence</div> <div class="indent">They meet in secret peace....</div> <div class="indent">Undertaker, do you make of death</div> <div class="indent">A puffing wretch forever pursued</div> <div class="indent">By duplicates of vanquished forms?</div> <div class="indent">Or do you make him a sneering King</div> <div class="indent">Brushing flies from his bloodless cheeks?</div> <div class="indent">Do you see him as an unappeased brooding</div> <div class="indent">Walking over the dust of men?</div> <div class="indent">Do you make him an eager giant</div> <div class="indent">Discovering and blending into his consciousness</div> <div class="indent">The tiny parts of his limitless mind?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Undertaker</i></div> <div class="indent">Death and I do not know each other.</div> <div class="indent">I am the stolid janitor</div> <div class="indent">Who cleans the litter he has left</div> <div class="indent">And claims a fancied payment.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><i>Poet</i></div> <div class="indent">Come to my fantastic forest</div> <div class="indent">And you will not need to rise</div> <div class="indent">From simple labours, asking death</div> <div class="indent">For final wages.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />