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IMPRESSIONSOFAMERICA.
BY OSCAR WILDE.
EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, By STUART MASON.
Keystone Press, Sunderland. 1906.
This Edition consists of 500 Copies. 50 Copies have been printed on hand-madepaper.
TO WALTER LEDGER: PIGNUS AMICITIÆ.
IMPRESSIONS.
I. LE JARDIN.
The lily’s withered chalice falls
Around its rod of dusty gold,
And from the beech trees on the wold
The last wood-pigeon coos and calls.
The gaudy leonine sunflower
Hangs black and barren on its stalk,
And down the windy garden walk
The dead leaves scatter,—hour by hour.
Pale privet-petals white as milk
Are blown into a snowy mass;
The roses lie upon the grass,
Like little shreds of crimson silk.
II. LA MER.
A white mist drifts across the shrouds,
A wild moon in this wintry sky
Gleams like an angry lion’s eye
Out of a mane of tawny clouds.
The muffled steersman at the wheel
Is but a shadow in the gloom;—
And in the throbbing engine room
Leap the long rods of polished steel.
The shattered storm has left its trace
Upon this huge and heaving dome,
For the thin threads of yellow foam
Float on the waves like ravelled lace.
Oscar Wilde.
PREFACE.
Oscar Wilde visited Americain the year 1882. Interest in theÆsthetic School, of which he was alreadythe acknowledged master, hadsometime previously spread to theUnited States, and it is said that theproduction of the Gilbert and Sullivanopera, “Patience,”[1] in which heand his disciples were held up toridicule, determined him to pay avisit to the States to give some lecturesexplaining what he meant byÆstheticism, hoping thereby to interest,and possibly to instruct andelevate our transatlantic cousins.
He set sail on board the “Arizona”on Saturday, December 24th, 1881,arriving in New York early in thefollowing year. On landing he wasbombarded by journalists eager tointerview the distinguished stranger.“Punch,” in its issue of January 14th,in a happy vein, parodied these interviewers,the most amusing passagein which referred to “His GloriousPast,” wherein Wilde was made tosay, “Prec