Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON RUE SAINT-JACQUES, by ANDRE SALMON Poet's Biography First Line: When I lived one hard winter on rue saint-jacques Last Line: Item, all the past, and my regrets. Subject(s): France; Villon, Francois (1431-1463) | ||||||||
When I lived one hard winter on rue Saint-Jacques And a summer, chance had it, piping hot Till winter came back, In a cheap room with rep in every unsuitable spot Summer and winter alike savoring of the fall; All day long I could recall François Villon; while my neighbor scratched on his fiddle And I thought of it all, Lounging in the middle of my old bed, that probably Was like the bed that he Slept on in rue Saint-Jacques. And the savory Smell of the taverns and the Easter chapel there Swept a perfume through the air Touched, in their season, with chrysanthemum Or iris. René de Montigny, Jehan Cotard! The fair armourer's wife, and big Margot! There you are; How you dance to and fro In the light of my studio! You come So vividly I cry "Phantoms, I love you all!" ... When dusk would fall I lit my candle there And the hat-rack marked a gallows on the wall Papered with outlandish birds that it could wear For crows ... I owe that some fair elegies. Later they put me out for midnight sprees, And one morning I had to quit the dive. With heavy heart I climbed old rue Saint-Jacques, Whose famous bell-towers rang the Easter chimes, Following, as a pauper half-alive Follows a hearse, with no look back, The sad trundle-cart where my sad belongings clung. There lay told rimes, and there a death's head hung, Item, a lantern, item, an old broom, A hatbox, flowers still fresh in the gloom Of their casket, and the card's pert epithets, Item, all the past, and my regrets. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DISPUTE OF THE HEART AND BODY OF FRANCOIS VILLON by FRANCOIS VILLON THE LAST BALLADE; MASTER FRANCOIS VILLON LOQUITUR by THOMAS BEER VILLON'S STRAIGHT TIP TO ALL CROSS COVES by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY FRANCOIS VILLON by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL A BALLADE OF BALLADE-MONGERS; AFTER THE MANNER OF VILLON OF PARIS by AUGUSTUS M. MOORE VILLON IN PRISON by HOWARD CHANDLER ROBBINS A BALLAD OF FRANCOIS VILLON by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE OVANUNA BELIEVED by ANDRE SALMON THE COCK OF THE CHARCOAL BURNER by ANDRE SALMON TO KNOW IN REVERIE THE ONLY PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE ABSOLUTE by HAYDEN CARRUTH |
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