‘Conversations in Heaven’ and Other Poems

Conversations in Heaven I

There is an ivory mansion
Where Whitman and Housman converse,
The scholar’s unswerving attention
Paid to the chattering nurse,
And the exuberant crank from Camden
Following Ludlow’s hearse.



Conversations in Heaven 10

The Amherst lady neatly
undid her ivory dress,
and then the servant Wheatley
conveyed it to the press.

And not a word was spoken
Between the two of them
Except, ‘One hook is broken,’
And ‘Phillis, mind the hem.’
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