CANTO 49
You, who by cluttering, assemble sparse rime, Those who are superb, & I who dive naked, Heart a cartoon colored with juvenile errors, Fit for scorn once our era sinks into its future. A skein of clashing styles in praise of weeping, Aye, & of raging, catches my leaden eye, Which watches as though with amorous interest The fate of one as miserable for love as I am. True, this man's diet of fresh vegetables, popular Today in the extreme, & with astounding speed, The servants say, inspires genial, sly copulation. But as for my deal with marriage: forgone forever, & the fifth floor, with its charming concierge, Split into four pieces, words are not, alas! enough. ________________ This early Canto, hitherto unfound, has none of the easy elegance or moving simplicity of this
poet's mature writing. I only include it here to show what a difference Laura made to his poetry
and indeed to his life. Those who have so cheaply pitied him for loving a woman married to
another man, should give more thought to the misery of his situation and to the happiness
which it brought him.