Poem by Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

The Lake Isle

O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Give me in due time, I beseech you, a little tobacco-shop,
With the little bright boxes
                piled up neatly upon the shelves
And the loose fragment cavendish
                and the shag,
And the bright Virginia
                loose under the bright glass cases,
And a pair of scales
             not too greasy,
And the votailles dropping in for a word or two in passing,
For a flip word, and to tidy their hair a bit.

O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Lend me a little tobacco-shop,
             or install me in any profession
Save this damn'd profession of writing,
             where one needs one's brains all the time.

1. Villonaud for This Yule
2. La Regina Avrillouse
3. Nicotine
4. Cantico del Sole
5. Ione, Dead the Long Year

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