Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CLEOPATRA, by NATHALIA CRANE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CLEOPATRA, by                    
First Line: The darlings of the doorstep have no rights
Last Line: And a little piece of soap.
Subject(s): Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt (69-30 B.c.)


The darlings of the doorstep have no rights
Tho' rigged with names that old resorts would cheer;
They see the tawny rosebud tread the nights,
And go unclocked -- a garden Guinevere.

Believing in the butter and the bread,
They peer beyond the frontiers of a frown;
Betimes they list to angels deeply read,
Then turn those vellumed versions upside down.

They long to trade a flathouse for a Troy,
The foreground of a doorstep for a fen;
They would -- but their tough mothers take a joy
In saying: "Cleopatra's only ten."

Cleopatra -- Cleopatra,
Do you see the Pharos Light?
Do you think that Caesar's galley
Will make the Nile tonight?

Cleopatra -- Cleopatra,
You were always mother's hope;
There's a galley in the bathroom --
And a little piece of soap.





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