[BNP/E3, 78 – 8]

The Clown

Through this mad mind relentless vaults

A grim idea weird and wild

With a meaning wilder than human[1] fears

A clown in grotesque somersaults;

And I weep at him as a child

     In a man's hard tears.

There is no roof, there is no floor;

Horror! no space is known in all!

‑ Relentlessly I see he vaults! ‑

There is the clown and nothing more,

Who ceaselessly doth rise and fall ‑

The clown in grotesque somersaults.

Relentless, how relentlessly

In me, who seek what means each thing,

This spaceless vision neatly vaults!

My legs to vault almost forget me.

What awful meaning can this bring –

     The clown in grotesque somersaults?

Alexander Search.

January 1906.

[1] wilder ^/larger\ than human ^{/our soul\}