{"product_id":"2940015980233","title":"Impressions Of America","description":"IMPRESSIONS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLE JARDIN.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The lily’s withered chalice falls\u003cbr\u003e      Around its rod of dusty gold,\u003cbr\u003e      And from the beech trees on the wold\u003cbr\u003e    The last wood-pigeon coos and calls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The gaudy leonine sunflower\u003cbr\u003e      Hangs black and barren on its stalk,\u003cbr\u003e      And down the windy garden walk\u003cbr\u003e    The dead leaves scatter,--hour by hour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pale privet-petals white as milk\u003cbr\u003e      Are blown into a snowy mass;\u003cbr\u003e      The roses lie upon the grass,\u003cbr\u003e    Like little shreds of crimson silk.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eII.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLA MER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    A white mist drifts across the shrouds,\u003cbr\u003e      A wild moon in this wintry sky\u003cbr\u003e      Gleams like an angry lion’s eye\u003cbr\u003e    Out of a mane of tawny clouds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The muffled steersman at the wheel\u003cbr\u003e      Is but a shadow in the gloom;--\u003cbr\u003e      And in the throbbing engine room\u003cbr\u003e    Leap the long rods of polished steel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The shattered storm has left its trace\u003cbr\u003e      Upon this huge and heaving dome,\u003cbr\u003e      For the thin threads of yellow foam\u003cbr\u003e    Float on the waves like ravelled lace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                              Oscar Wilde.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the Æsthetic\u003cbr\u003eSchool, of which he was already the acknowledged master, had sometime\u003cbr\u003epreviously spread to the United States, and it is said that the\u003cbr\u003eproduction of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, “Patience,”[1] in which he\u003cbr\u003eand his disciples were held up to ridicule, determined him to pay a\u003cbr\u003evisit to the States to give some lectures explaining what he meant by\u003cbr\u003eÆstheticism, hoping thereby to interest, and possibly to instruct and\u003cbr\u003eelevate our transatlantic cousins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe set sail on board the “Arizona” on Saturday, December 24th, 1881,\u003cbr\u003earriving in New York early in the following year. On landing he was\u003cbr\u003ebombarded by journalists eager to interview the distinguished stranger.\u003cbr\u003e“Punch,” in its issue of January 14th, in a happy vein, parodied these\u003cbr\u003einterviewers, the most amusing passage in which referred to “His\u003cbr\u003eGlorious Past,” wherein Wilde was made to say, “Precisely--I took the\u003cbr\u003eNewdigate. Oh! no doubt, every year some man gets the Newdigate; but not\u003cbr\u003eevery year does Newdigate get an Oscar.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt Omaha, where, under the auspices of the Social Art Club, Wilde\u003cbr\u003edelivered a lecture on “Decorative Art,” he described his impressions\u003cbr\u003eof many American houses as being “illy designed, decorated shabbily, and\u003cbr\u003ein bad taste, filled with furniture that was not honestly made, and was\u003cbr\u003eout of character.” This statement gave rise to the following verses:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    What a shame and what a pity,\u003cbr\u003e    In the streets of London City\u003cbr\u003e      Mr. Wilde is seen no more.\u003cbr\u003e    Far from Piccadilly banished,\u003cbr\u003e    He to Omaha has vanished.\u003cbr\u003e      Horrid place, which swells ignore.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    On his back a coat he beareth,\u003cbr\u003e    Such as Sir John Bennet weareth,\u003cbr\u003e      Made of velvet--strange array!\u003cbr\u003e    Legs Apollo might have sighed for,\u003cbr\u003e    Or great Hercules have died for,\u003cbr\u003e      His knee breeches now display.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Waving sunflower and lily,\u003cbr\u003e    He calls all the houses “illy\u003cbr\u003e      Decorated and designed.”\u003cbr\u003e    For of taste they’ve not a tittle;\u003cbr\u003e    They may chew and they may whittle;\u003cbr\u003e      But they’re all born colour-blind!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis lectures dealt almost exclusively with the subjects of Art and Dress\u003cbr\u003eReform. In the course of one lecture he remarked that the most\u003cbr\u003eimpressive room he had yet entered in America was the one in Camden Town\u003cbr\u003ewhere he met Walt Whitman. It contained plenty of fresh air and\u003cbr\u003esunlight. On the table was a simple cruse of water. This led to a\u003cbr\u003eparody, in the style of Whitman, describing an imaginary interview\u003cbr\u003ebetween the two poets, which appeared in “The Century” a few months\u003cbr\u003elater. Wilde is called Narcissus and Whitman Paumanokides.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Paumanokides:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      Who may this be?\u003cbr\u003e    This young man clad unusually with loose locks, languorous,\u003cbr\u003e          glidingly toward me advancing,\u003cbr\u003e    Toward the ceiling of my chamber his orbic and expressive eyeballs\u003cbr\u003e          uprolling,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand so on, to which Narcissus replies,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    O clarion, from whose brazen throat,\u003cbr\u003e      Strange sounds across the seas are blown,\u003cbr\u003e    Where England, girt as with a moat,\u003cbr\u003e      A strong sea-lion sits alone!","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084656820464,"sku":"2940015980233","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015980233","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}