Alfred's death book
the rhyme scheme sepulchral
totalmente chiusa
but endlessly extensible
his grandsire: 'The Old Man of the Wolds'
vicar, laudanum fiend
slave to his compounds
and disreputable emulsions
his youngest sibling
opium fiend arising
from the carpet to confess
'I am Septimus,
the vilest of the Tennysons'
but see 'grandsire', above
*
a grand style should be felt, never
conceived
Who reads Lucretius?
Who reads Lucretius now
that AAH is dead?
death is uncuttable: know it
for a barren truth
'A strange scorn of love
a strange vehemence
and a high melancholy'
(Santayana, 25)
dried up with him
and his ways
