Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PRIDE OF ANCESTRY, by ROBERT FROST


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PRIDE OF ANCESTRY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The deacon's wife was a bit desirish
Last Line: Accounts for their genius and love of drink
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity


The Deacon's wife was a bit desirish
And liked her sex relations wild
So she lay with one of the shanty Irish
And he begot the Deacon's child.

The Deacon himself was a man of money
And upright life and a bosom shirt;
Which made her infidelity funny
And gave her pleasure in doing him dirt.

And yet for all her romantic sneakin'
Out the back door and over the wall
How was she sure the child of the Deacon
Wasn't the Deacon's after all?

Don't question a story of high eugenics.
She lived with the Deacon and bedded with him
But she no doubt restricted his calesthenics
To the sterile arc of her lunar rhythm.

And she only had to reverse the trick
And let the Irishman turn her turtle
When by his faith as a Catholic
A woman was almost sure to be fertile.

Her portrait hangs in the family gallery
And a family of nobodies likes to think
That their descent from such a caloric
Accounts for their genius and love of drink.






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