'Something Lies beyond the Scene'

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General Information – Performing Forces – Manuscript – Publication – Arrangements – Recordings – Text

General Information:

Text:
Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
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Text:

Something lies beyond the scene, the encre de chine, marine, obscene
Horizon
            In
                        Hell.
Black as a bison,
See the tall black Aga on the sofa in the alga mope, his
Bell-rope
Moustache (clear as a great bell!)
Waves in eighteen-eighty
Bustles
Come
Late with tambourines of
Rustling
Foam.
They answer to the names
Of ancient dames and shames, and
Only call horizons their home.
Coldly where (Chinese as these black-armoured fleas that dance) the breezes
Seeking for horizons
Wide; from her orisons
In her wide
Vermilion
Pavilion
By the seaside
The doors clang open and hide
Where the wind died
Nothing but the Princess
Cockatrice
Lean
Dancing a caprice
To the wind's tambourine!

— Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)

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