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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHEZ BREBANT, by FRANCIS ALEXANDER DURIVAGE First Line: The vicomte is wearing a brow of gloom Last Line: "ma foi! Chez brebant ces choses sont rares!" | |||
THE vicomte is wearing a brow of gloom As he mounts the stair to his favorite room. "Breakfast for two!" the garcons say, "Then the pretty young lady is coming today!" But the patron mutters, A Dieu ne plaise! I want no clients from Pere la Chaise. Silver and crystal -- a splendid show! And a damask cloth white as driven snow. The vicomte sits down with a ghastly air, -- His vis-a-vis is an empty chair. But he calls to the garcon, "Antoine! Vite! Place a stool for the lady's feet." "The lady, monsieur?" (in a wavering tone). "Yes -- when have you known me to breakfast alone? Fill up her glass! Versez! Versez! You see how white are her cheeks to-day: Sip it, my darling, 't was ordered for thee." He raises his glass, "A toi, Mimi!" The garcon shudders, for nothing is there In the lady's place but an empty chair. But still, with an air of fierce unrest, The vicomte addresses an unseen guest. "Leave us, Antoine: we have much to say, And time is precious to me to-day." When the garcon was gone he sprang up with a start: "Mimi is dead of a broken heart. Could I think, when she gave it with generous joy, A woman's heart such a fragile toy? Her trim little figure no longer I see! Would I were lying with thee, Mimi! For what is life but a hell to me? What splendor and wealth but misery?" A jet of flame and a whirl of smoke! A detonation the silence broke. The landlord enters, and lying there Is the dead vicomte, with a stony glare Rigidly fixed on an empty chair. "Il faut avertir le commissaire! Ma foi! Chez Brebant ces choses sont rares!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ESSAY: AT NIGHT THE AUTOPORTRAIT AT NIGHT by ELENI SIKELIANOS INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 1. EMBARKATION by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER SONGS OF TRAVEL: 44 by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON LONDON SURVEYED AND ILLUSTRATED by JOHANNEM ADAMUS THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): MEDEA BETRAYED by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS |
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