- A Figure Half Seen
Rome was not the firmamentOf his imagination. Yet, he readThe plays of Goldoni and remarkedUpon the nobility of Colleoni.
As a child he did not acknowledge;As an adult he saw but dimlyThose who would have beenDescribed as swarthy, yet
Innocent—unless provoked.We associate him with a smallTown romanticism, an urban andCommercial maturity, and an
Imagined realm forever unseen,But often visited. Yet, when heExited an Arp exhibit, disappointed,A Southern cheese—sharp and
Strong, un-tasted (not Brie),Brought him back to the things ofThis world. And when Renato PoggioliRecorded his words in the language
Not his, he beamed somewhatBoyishly and then dismissed TalCoat and Oudot, thought insteadOf Morandi in Bologna, [End Page 134]
An old teacher in Rome. ThenHe began to dictate a new poem.His purview redrawn, and rewritten,He ascended soon after. [End Page 135]