Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE PUPPETS, by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER First Line: Our life is but a puppet show Last Line: Just so the puppet dances! Subject(s): Puppets; Women; Marionettes | ||||||||
I. OUR life is but a puppet show; Men, mere mechanic factors; And rich and poor, and high and low, Involuntary actors. Clowns, courtiers, statesmen, serfs, and kings, The wicked and the pious, -- We all are worked by secret springs, And move as others ply us. II. And yet, vain man! he deems his course Is by himself decided; Because he cannot see the force By which his mind is guided. But soon or later he will see That, like his wooden brothers, He's ever been, and still must be, A puppet, ruled by others. III. Just mark the maid of seventeen, When first the gentle dreamer, Unconscious what the mood may mean, Feels love's delicious tremor, -- What secret power, unknown before, Can thus so sweetly sway her? She's but a puppet, nothing more, -- And Cupid is the player! IV. Observe yon alderman so grand, How shrewdly and how neatly His wife (the young coquette!) has planned To rule the man completely! Perhaps a spark of jealous fire Within the puppet lingers, I only know the moving wire Is held in madam's fingers! V. And so it is with all mankind, The womankind befool us; We're merely puppets, deaf and blind, And hers the art to rule us; We laugh and cry and work and play According to her fancies; Whate'er the lady's whim may say, Just so the puppet dances! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ORIENTAL PHANTASY by LE BARON COOKE THE PUPPET PLAYER by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE TO THE PUPPET, WIND by GORDON JOWERS ICICLES by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG THE NAUGHTY MARIONETTE by STELLA LAVINA OLSON PROLOGUE TO THE FARCE OF PUNCH TURNED SCHOOLMASTER by THOMAS SHERIDAN (1687-1738) THE PUPPET SHOW: 17 by ANONYMOUS THE PUPPET SHOW: 18 by ANONYMOUS MY BALD HEAD by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER BLESSINGS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER |
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