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A new facsimile edition of Oscar Wilde's poem The Sphinx, with decorations by Charles Ricketts, with an Afterword and Bibliography by Nicholas Frankel

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The sphinx


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THE EDITION OF THIS
BOOK IS LIMITED FOR
ENGLAND TO 200 COPIES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


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TO MARCEL SCHWOB IN FRIENDSHIP AND ADMIRATION


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The sphinx by oscar wilde


WITH DECORATIONS BY CHARLES RICKETTS
LONDON MDCCCXCIV
ELKIN MATHEWS AND JOHN LANE , AT THE SIGN OF THE BODLEY HEAD.


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the sphinx

I n a dim corner of my room for longer than my fancy thinks
A beautiful and silent sphinx has watched me through the shifting gloom.

I nviolate and immobile she does not rise she does not stir
F or silver moons are naught to her and naught to her the suns that reel .

R ed follows grey across the air the waves of moonlight ebb and flow
B ut with the dawn she does not go and in the night-time she is there.

D awn follows dawn and nights grow old and all the while this curious cat
L ies couching on the chinese mat with eyes of satin rimmed with gold ,

U pon the mat she lies and leers and on the tawny throat of her
F lutters the soft and silky fur or ripples to her pointed ears .

C ome forth my lovely seneschal ! so somnolent, so statuesque !
C ome forth you exquisite grotesque ! half woman and half animal !

C ome forth my lovely languorous sphinx ! and put your head upon my knee !
A nd let me stroke your throat and see your body spotted like the lynx !

A nd let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory and grasp
T he tail that like a monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws !


a thousand

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the sphinx

A thousand weary centuries are thine while i have hardly seen
S ome twenty summers cast their green for autumn’s gaudy liveries .

B ut you can read the hieroglyphs on the great sandstone obelisks ,
A nd you have talked with basilisks, and you have looked on hippogriffs .

O tell me, were you standing by when isis to osiris knelt ?
A nd did you watch the egyptian melt her union for antony

A nd drink the jewel- drunken wine and bend her head in mimic awe
T o see the huge proconsul draw the salted tunny from the brine ?

A nd did you mark the cyprian kiss white adon on his catafalque ?
A nd did you follow amenalk, the god of heliopolis ?

A nd did you talk with thoth, and did you hear the moon-horned io weep ?
A nd know the painted kings who sleep beneath the wedge-shaped pyramid ?


lift


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the sphinx

L ift up your large black satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks !
F awn at my feet fantastic sphinx ! and sing me all your memories !

S ing to me of the jewish maid who wandered with the holy child ,
A nd how you led them through the wild, and how they slept beneath your shade .


sing


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the sphinx

S ing to me of that odorous green eve when couching by the marge
Y ou heard from adrian’s gilded barge the laughter of antinous

A nd lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare
T he ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth !


sing


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the sphinx


sing


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the sphinx

S ing to me of the labyrinth in which the twy-formed bull was stalled !
S ing to me of the night you crawled across the temple’s granite plinth

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Source:  OpenStax, The sphinx. OpenStax CNX. Apr 11, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11196/1.2
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