TELEGRAM OSCAR

She possessed many letters and telegrams from Wilde, and always maintained that he stood head and shoulders above all his contemporaries in respect of being a master of the wire as a literary medium.  It was her intention to edit and bring out a book entitled The Collected Telegrams of Oscar Wilde.

From: “Ada Leverson” in Osbert Sitwell, Noble Essences, New York, Little Brown & Company, 1950.

 T. Rex -- Telegram Sam (Link)

HAPPY EASTER

The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.
Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,
And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,
Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:
In splendour and in light the Pope passed home.
My heart stole back across wide wastes of years
To One who wandered by a lonely sea,
And sought in vain for any place of rest:
'Foxes have holes, and every bird its nest.
I, only I, must wander wearily,
And bruise my feet, and drink wine salt with tears.'

Painting:  Fra Bartolomeo, Noli Me Tangere, 1506, oil on panel, Louvre, Paris.

Poem:  Oscar Wilde, Easter Day, from Poems (1881).

PRECIPITATELY

I had slipped into my stomach, and must have begun to fall into a fairy-like state; for my digestive tube was suggestive; my mad cells danced; and my shoes seemed to me miraculous.  What incites me more to think thus, is that the moment I remarked the feeble noise of a bell, the ordinary timbre of which, seemingly, diffused itself through all my members, like some marvelous liquid.  I arose slowly and, precipitately, went to the door, joyous at such an unexpected diversion.  I pulled it open; an immense man stood before me.

“Monsieur Lloyd?”

Text:  Arthur Cravan:  Oscar Wilde Lives! (from Maintenant)

Pictures: 

Top:  John Vanderlyn,  Francis Lucas Wadell (1837); 

Bottom:  James Bogle (based on a work by John Vanderlyn), Elbridge Gerry (1861). 

Oscillate Wildly: The Smiths (Link)