Tree with a Bird in it

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page35" name="page35"></SPAN>[35]</span></p> <div><SPAN name="h2H_4_0022" id="h2H_4_0022"></SPAN></div> <h2> <i>Marguerite Wilkinson</i> </h2> <p class="quote"> (Advancing with sedate courtesy in a long-sleeved, high-necked lecture costume.)</p> <h3> THE RUNE OF THE NUDE </h3> <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> <p class="i2"> I will set my slim strong soul on this tree with no leaves upon it, </p> <p class="i4"> I will lift up my undressed dreams to the nude and ethical sky: </p> <p class="i2"> This bird has his feathers upon him: he shall not have even a sonnet: </p> <p class="i4"> Until he is stripped of his last pin-plume I will sing of my mate and I! </p> </div> <div class="stanza"> <p class="i2"> My ancestors rise from their graves to be shocked at my soul's wild climbing </p> <p class="i4"> (They were strong, they were righteous, my ancestors, but they always kept on their clothes) </p> <p class="i4"> My mate is the best of all mates alive: his voice is a raptured rhyming: </p> <p class="i2"> He chants "Come Down!" but it cannot come, either for him or those! </p> </div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page36" name="page36"></SPAN>[36]</span> <p class="i2"> My ancestors pound from their ouija-board: my mate leaps in swift indignation: </p> <p class="i4"> I must tell the world of their wonders, but I must be strong and free&mdash; </p> <p class="i2"> Though all sires and all mates cry out in a runic incantation, </p> <p class="i4"> My soul shall be stripped and buttonless&mdash;it shall dwell in a naked tree! </p> </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />