ABSTRACT POEM

a term coined by Edith Sitwell to describe a poem in which the words are chosen for their aural quality rather than specifically for their sense or meaning. An example from "Popular Song" in Sitwell's Faade (1923) follows: The red retriever-haired satyr Can whine and tease her and flatter, But Lily O'Grady, Silly and shady, In the deep shade is a lazy lady; Now Pompey's dead, Homer's read, Heliogabalus lost his head, And shade is on the brightest wing, And dust forbids the bird to sing.