"his brain appears, throned in "fantastic triumph," / and shines through his hat / with jeweled works at work at intermeshing crowns, / lamé with lights."
— Bishop, Elizabeth (1911-1979)
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Date
1946
Metaphor
"his brain appears, throned in "fantastic triumph," / and shines through his hat / with jeweled works at work at intermeshing crowns, / lamé with lights."
Metaphor in Context
The long, long legs,
league-boots of land, that carry the city nowhere,
nowhere; the lines
that we drive on (satin-stripes on harlequin's
trousers, tights);
his tough trunk dressed in tatters, scribbled over with
nonsensical signs;
his shadowy, tall dunce-cap; and, best of all his
shows and sights,
his brain appears, throned in "fantastic triumph,"
and shines through his hat
with jeweled works at work at intermeshing crowns,
lamé with lights.
(p. 14, ll. 1-13)
league-boots of land, that carry the city nowhere,
nowhere; the lines
that we drive on (satin-stripes on harlequin's
trousers, tights);
his tough trunk dressed in tatters, scribbled over with
nonsensical signs;
his shadowy, tall dunce-cap; and, best of all his
shows and sights,
his brain appears, throned in "fantastic triumph,"
and shines through his hat
with jeweled works at work at intermeshing crowns,
lamé with lights.
(p. 14, ll. 1-13)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Bishop, Elizabeth. "From the Country to the City." The Complete Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969. Fourth printing, 1975.
Date of Entry
12/23/2009
