Poem by Elinor Wylie

The Tortoise in Eternity

Within my house of patterned horn 
I sleep in such a bed 
As men may keep before they’re born 
And after when they’re dead.

Sticks and stones may break their bones, 
And words may make them bleed; 
There is not one of them who owns 
An armour to his need.

Tougher than hide or lozenged bark, 
Snow-storm and thunder proof, 
And quick with sun, and thick with dark, 
Is this my darling roof.

Men’s troubled dreams of death and birth 
Puls mother-o’-pearl to black; 
I bear the rainbow bubble Earth 
Square on my scornful back.

1. The Pekingese
2. In Our Content, before the Autumn Came
3. Upon Your Heart, Which Is.the Heart of All
4. Absent Thee from Felicity Awhile
5. The Broken Man

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