Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: V. The Arts | | On a Fan | | Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | That Belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour
(Ballade) |
|
CHICKEN-SKIN, delicate, white, | |
| Painted by Carlo Vanloo, | |
| Loves in a riot of light, | |
| Roses and vaporous blue; | |
| Hark to the dainty frou-frou! | 5 |
| Picture above, if you can, | |
| Eyes that could melt as the dew,— | |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
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| See how they rise at the sight, | |
| Thronging the Œil de Bœuf through, | 10 |
| Courtiers as butterflies bright, | |
| Beauties that Fragonard drew, | |
| Talon-rouge, falaba, queue, | |
| Cardinal, duke,—to a man, | |
| Eager to sigh or to sue,— | 15 |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
| |
| Ah, but things more than polite | |
| Hung on this toy, voyez-vous! | |
| Matters of state and of might, | |
| Things that great ministers do; | 20 |
| Things that, maybe, overthrew | |
| Those in whose brains they began;— | |
| Here was the sign and the cue,— | |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
| |
ENVOY Where are the secrets it knew? | 25 |
| Weavings of plot and of plan? | |
| —But where is the Pompadour, too? | |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | | | |
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