d. It is an enchanting thing to wander through a
city looking for its unrelated beauty, the beauty by which it captivates
the sensuous sense of seeing.

I have always loved aquariums, but for years I went to them and looked,
and looked, at those swirling, shooting, looping patterns of fish, which
always defied transcription to paper until I hit upon the "unrelated"
method. The result is in "An Aquarium". I think the first thing which
turned me in this direction was John Gould Fletcher's "London
Excursion", in "Some Imagist Poets". I here record my thanks.

For the substance of the poems--why, the poems are here. No one
writing to-day can fail to be affected by the great war raging in Europe
at this time. We are too near it to do more than touch upon it. But,
obliquely, it is suggested in many of these poems, most notably those in
the section, "Bronze Tablets". The Napoleonic Era is an epic subject,
and waits a great epic poet. I have only been able to open a few
windows upon it here and there. But the scene from the windows is
authentic, and the watcher has used eyes, and ears, and heart, in
watching.

Amy Lowell
July 10, 1916.

Contents

Figurines in Old Saxe

Patterns
Pickthorn Manor
The Cremona Violin
The Cross-Roads
A Roxbury Garden
1777

Bronze Tablets

The Fruit Shop
Malmaison
The Hammers
Two Travellers in the Place Vendome

War Pictures

The Allies
The Bombardment
Lead Soldiers
The Painter on Silk
A Ballad of Footmen

The Overgrown Pasture

Reaping
Off the Turnpike
The Grocery
Number 3 on the Docket

Clocks Tick a Century

Nightmare: A Tale for an Autumn Evening
The Paper Windmill
The Red Lacquer Music-Stand
Spring Day
The Dinner-Party
Stravinsky's Three Pieces "Grotesques", for String Quartet
Towns in Colour
Red Slippers
Thompson's Lunch Room--Grand Central Station
An Opera House
Afternoon Rain in State Street
An Aquarium

The two sea songs quoted in "The Hammers" are taken from
'Songs: Naval and Nautical, of the late Charles Dibdin', London,
John Murray, 1841. The "Hanging Johnny" refrain, in "The Cremona Violin",
is borrowed from the old, well-known chanty of that name.

MEN, WOMEN AND GHOSTS

FIGURINES IN OLD SAXE

Patterns

I walk down the garden paths,
And