confusedAs a bathtub lined with white porcelain,
When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,
So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.
- -- Ezra Pound, (1885–1972), U.S. poet, critic. repr. In Collected Shorter Poems (1984). "The Bath Tub", Lustra (1916). The poem is thought to be addressed to Pound's fiancée Dorothy Shakespear, whom he married in April 1914.
(Removed from "La Bañera, Español" 8/13/04.)
