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77 The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
78 Glowed on the marble, where the glass
79 Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
80 From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
81 (Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
82 Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
83 Reflecting light upon the table as
84 The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
85 From satin cases poured in rich profusion.
86 In vials of ivory and coloured glass
87 Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
88 Unguent, powdered, or liquid — troubled, confused
89 And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
90 That freshened from the window, these ascended
91 In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
92 Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
93 Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
94 Huge sea-wood fed with copper
95 Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
96 In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam
97 Above the antique mantel was displayed
98 As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
99 The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
100 So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
101 Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
102 And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
103 'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.
104 And other withered stumps of time
105 Were told upon the walls; staring forms
106 Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
107 Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
108 Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
109 Spread out in fiery points
110 Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.
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