She dealt her pretty words like Blades－1
How glittering they shone－
And every One unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone－
She never deemed－she hurt－5
That－is not Steel's Affair－
A vulgar grimace in the Flesh－
How ill the Creatures bear－
To Ache is human－not polite－9
The Film upon the eye
Mortality's old Custom－
Just locking up－to Die.
How glittering they shone－
And every One unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone－
She never deemed－she hurt－5
That－is not Steel's Affair－
A vulgar grimace in the Flesh－
How ill the Creatures bear－
To Ache is human－not polite－9
The Film upon the eye
Mortality's old Custom－
Just locking up－to Die.
(F.458/J.479)
[1] Blades:: blade-fish, or ribbon-fish.
[6] not Steel:: not a blade of knife.
[7] Flesh:: content of her writing; the fish's body.
[8] ill the Creatures:: the illness of her words is like the strange shape of the fish.
[10] Film, eye:: one's mind being covered; eye of the dead fish.
called by some the Blade-fish－in contrast, we suppose, to the Scabbard-fish－occurs occasionally in various parts of the British seas. It is shining silvery, with greyish-yellow fins; the dorsal mottled with black on the edge; ─ The Animal Kingdom (1851)