FALSETTO SONG
Reading edition
WHEN I was young, in ages past, My soul had cast Man’s foolish shape, And like a black and hairy ape— My shadow, he Now mimics me. Follows slinking in my shade Through the corridors of life (Stifling ’twixt the walls I made With the mud and murderous knife), Takes the pulse of my black heart, Never once controls my will, Apes me selling in the mart Song-birds hate did kill.