title: Tattered Scrolls and Postulates: Volume I Poems, Viscera, Encyclopedia, Esoterica
author: Joseph V. Milford
description: Joseph Milford might just be the Philippe Petit of contemporary American poetry. His Tattered Scrolls and Postulates shows us nothing less than an ingeniously shaped poetic imagination and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of astonishing lines.<br /><br />Joe Milford knows things that are reserved for true artists and the sainted mad. He spills them in torrents of fire. Joe claims to be knee-deep in the unsayable. Maybe so, but he does a damned fine job of pushing through the scars of the wounded world.<br /><br />Tattered Scrolls and Postulates, Joseph Milford's striking sequence, transports us to a bizarre neighborhood where "every elevator is a minefield" and the famous castaway "Alexander Selkirk sleeps in a tent in my backyard and befriends neighbors and stray dogs."
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  * * *
  
  # THE DUNCIAD: BOOK IV
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### ALEXANDER POPE
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  
  Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light
  
  
  Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night!
  
  
  Of darkness visible so much be lent,
  
  
  As half to show, half veil, the deep intent.
  
  
  Ye pow'rs! whose mysteries restor'd I sing,
  
  
  To whom time bears me on his rapid wing,
  
  
  Suspend a while your force inertly strong,
  
  
  Then take at once the poet and the song.
  
  
  Now flam'd the Dog Star's unpropitious ray,
  
  
  Smote ev'ry brain, and wither'd every bay;
  
  
  Sick was the s