A biography of Francis Bacon in verse, with prose interludes. Four aspects of Bacon are examined: the aspirant who became--in the worldly sense-- the disgraced failure; the theorist of science; the bisexual who seemed to regard his acquisition of a wife as nothing more than that; and the pagan, in awe of the ancients and seeking their wisdom in myths whose meanings he was prepared to reinterpret. In addition, there was the poet who wrote the extraordinary stanzas from which the title of the present poem is taken.

"The poem is altogether remarkable. What a strange intellegence."

--Christopher Middleton


"...it's an extraordinary piece which seems to combine solid historical background with an unflagging imaginative thread and a delightful poetry."

--Andrew Sabol