My crown of peerless bay;

So I’ll take the next rapide to Nice,

And the ’bus to Cimiez.

Mentone, Feb., 1896.

Mentone

57

IV. LILITH LIBIFERA.

Exhumed from out the inner cirque of Hell

By kind permission of the Evil One,

Behold her devilish presentment, done

By Master Aubrey’s weird unearthly spell!

This is that Lady known as Jezebel,

Or Lilith, Eden’s woman-scorpion,

Libifera, that is, that takes the bun,

Borgia, Vivien, Cussed Damosel.

Hers are the bulging lips that fairly break

The pumpkin’s heart; and hers the eyes that shame

The wanton ape that culls the cocoa-nuts.

Even such the yellow-bellied toads that slake

Nocturnally their amorous-ardent flame

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