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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE FLAPPER by JOHN ORLEY ALLEN TATE

Poet Analysis

First Line: ALL NIGHT LONG THE DARLING DAUGHTER SQUIRMS
Last Line: THE CANTO AMOROSO OF HER HIPS.
Subject(s): DANCING & DANCERS; YOUTH;

All night long the darling daughter squirms
Wild where the Toddle and Shimmy vie
In making passion virtuous and correct,
That nature may be told just one more lie.

Her mother is a lorgnette scanning all
The eligible men upon the floor:
She thinks of what their great-grandfathers did,
Eschewing her darling might become their whore.

A spade is not a spade, and it is just
That any tremulous twisting of her lips
Should be mere prettiness, or call it grace
The @3canto amoroso@1 of her hips.



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