Front matter
Reading edition
Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/iposebenson00bens
Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
I POSE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
I POSE
BY
STELLA BENSON
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1916
All rights reserved
Copyright 1916
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1916.
My eyes are girt with outer mists,
My ears sing shrill—and this I bless,
My finger-nails do bite my fists
In ecstasy of loneliness.
This I intend, and this I want,—
That, passing, you may only mark
A dumb soul and its confidante
Entombed together in the dark.
The hoarse church-bells of London ring,
The hoarser horns of London croak,
The poor brown lives of London cling
About the poor brown streets like smoke;
The deep air stands above my roof,
Like water to the floating stars;
My Friend and I—we sit aloof,
We sit and smile, and bind our scars.
For you may wound and you may kill—
It’s such a little thing to die—
Your cruel God may work his will,
We do not care—my Friend and I,—
Though, at the gate of Paradise,
Peter the Saint withhold his keys,
My Friend and I—we have no eyes
For Heaven ... or Hell ... or dreams like these....