OUT of the Latin Quarter | |
| I came to the lofty door | |
| Where the two marble Sphinxes guard | |
| The Pavilon de Flore. | |
| Two Cockneys stood by the gate, and one | 5 |
| Observed, as they turned to go, | |
| “No wonder he likes that sort of thing,— | |
| He’s a Sphinx himself, you know.” | |
| |
| I thought as I walked where the garden glowed | |
| In the sunset’s level fire, | 10 |
| Of the Charlatan whom the Frenchmen loathe | |
| And the Cockneys all admire. | |
| They call him a Sphinx,—it pleases him,— | |
| And if we narrowly read, | |
| We will find some truth in the flunkey’s praise,— | 15 |
| The man is a Sphinx indeed. | |
| |
| For the Sphinx with breast of woman | |
| And face so debonair | |
| Had the sleek false paws of a lion, | |
| That could furtively seize and tear. | 20 |
| So far to the shoulders,—but if you took | |
| The Beast in reverse you would find | |
| The ignoble form of a craven cur | |
| Was all that lay behind. | |
| |
| She lived by giving to simple folk | 25 |
| A silly riddle to read, | |
| And when they failed she drank their blood | |
| In cruel and ravenous greed. | |
| But at last came one who knew her word, | |
| And she perished in pain and shame,— | 30 |
| This bastard Sphinx leads the same base life | |
| And his end will be the same. | |
| |
| For an Œdipus-People is coming fast | |
| With swelled feet limping on, | |
| If they shout his true name once aloud | 35 |
| His false foul power is gone. | |
| Afraid to fight and afraid to fly, | |
| He cowers in an abject shiver; | |
| The people will come to their own at last,— | |
| God is not mocked forever. | 40 |
| |
