Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TO A FRIEND</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Your head is steel cut into drooping lines</div> <div class="verse">That make a mask satirically meek:</div> <div class="verse">Your face is like a tired devil weak</div> <div class="verse">From drinking many vague and unsought wines.</div> <div class="verse">The sullen skepticism of your eyes</div> <div class="verse">For ever trying to transcend itself,</div> <div class="verse">Is often entered by a wistful elf</div> <div class="verse">Who sits naïvely unperturbed and wise.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And this same remnant, with its youthful wiles</div> <div class="verse">Held curiously apart from blasphemies,</div> <div class="verse">Twirls starlight shivers out upon your sneers</div> <div class="verse">And changes them to little, startled smiles.</div> <div class="verse">And all your insolence drops to its knees</div> <div class="verse">Before the half-won grandeur of past years.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />