Impressions De Nuit — London

See what a mass of gems the city wears

Upon her broad live bosom ! row on row

Rubies and emeralds and amethysts glow.

See ! that huge circle like a necklace, stares

With thousands of bold eyes to heaven, and dares

The golden stars to dim the lamps below,

And in the mirror of the mire I know

The moon has left her image unawares.

That's the great town at night : I see her breasts,

Pricked out with lamps they stand like huge black towers.

I think they move ! I hear her panting breath.

And that's her head where the tiara rests.

And in her brain, through lanes as dark as death,

Men creep like thoughts . . . The lamps are like pale flowers.

Taken from the New Adelphi Library edition of 'Selected Poems' by Lord Arthur Douglas Published by Martin Secker 1926Page 4