<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Gaff</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">OUT, out into the wind-swept cleansing night</p><p class="line">Whose purple canopy, the sky, is bright</p><p class="line">With the soft splendour of the full round moon</p><p class="line">And a thousand stars that mystically croon</p><p class="line">Strange melodies upborne on the cooling wind !</p><p class="line">Out into the night I plunge, my fevered mind</p><p class="line">Hot and drunk.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Out to the night from the stenches</p><p class="line">Of a swelt'ring music-hall where leering wenches,</p><p class="line">Sickly pale, nudge lustfully in glee the men</p><p class="line">That smoke and sweat in their music-den</p><p class="line">Like bestial things; where the reeking pit</p><p class="line">Vomits out its noise of ribald wit,</p><p class="line">The click of glasses in its bar in the rear</p><p class="line">Where bloated men swill nauseous beer;</p><p class="line">Its drunken babbling, oaths, hysteric glee,</p><p class="line">Licentious talk and loathsome waggery;</p><p class="line">Where huddled men and women sit in swarms,</p><p class="line">All sensual and sweating all, on forms</p><p class="line">Above a spittle-littered floor ; and where</p><p class="line">Tall men with silent philosophic air</p><p class="line">Y-clad in tawdry braided gold, spit out</p><p class="line">Tobacco juice and, watching, prowl about!</p><p class="line">Out from the garish stage flashed bright with lights</p><p class="line">That lure the eyes of the sweating crowd to sights</p><p class="line">And things they lust for, women showing legs,</p><p class="line">And more (like that fat girl, half nude, that begs</p><p class="line">Her languid lover's ravishing embrace</p><p class="line">And smiles hideously in his grinning face);</p><p class="line">Full-limbed, tight-laced wantons singing all</p><p class="line">Delirious songs of love that shrilly fall</p><p class="line">On the gloating herds like balm; voluptuous dancing,</p><p class="line">And the winking chorus, ludicrously prancing</p><p class="line">On behind, like animated dolls.!</p><p class="line">Ugh, enough! this tinsel show appals</p><p class="line">My soul. Away this gruesome glare! Away</p><p class="line">This carnival of gay indelicacy,</p><p class="line">Gross and joyless!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Out I rush to the night</p><p class="line">Whose purple covering, the sky, is bright</p><p class="line">With the soft splendour of a million stars</p><p class="line">And the mystic moon. Out, out, to list to bars</p><p class="line">Of delicious music mingled with the scent</p><p class="line">Of hidden flowers, that surely ne'er was meant</p><p class="line">For man ! Out, out, to wash my jaded soul</p><p class="line">With cooling airs from the star-wrought purple bowl</p><p class="line">Of night, in the vast solemnity</p><p class="line">Of silent trees where purple shadows lie</p><p class="line">And where, by a rugged ivy'd grot, enriched</p><p class="line">With golden withered leaves, a brook bewitched</p><p class="line">By the elfish spell of moonbeams babbles on</p><p class="line">And mutters of a silent graceful swan</p><p class="line">It loves ; and where, upon the whispering grass</p><p class="line">Slim fairy dancers laugh and, twinkling, pass!</p></div></body></html> · Great War