Edith Louisa Sitwell

Falsetto Song

WHEN I was young, in ages past,
My soul had cast
Man’s foolish shape,
And like a black and hairy ape--
My shadow, he
Now mimics me.
Follows slinking in my shade
Through the corridors of life
(Stifling ’twixt the walls I made
With the mud and murderous knife),
Takes the pulse of my black heart,
Never once controls my will,
Apes me selling in the mart
Song-birds hate did kill.