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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FEMININE TALK, by MAXWELL BODENHEIM Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Do you share the present dread Last Line: Within the usual tavern. Subject(s): Women | |||
First Woman. Do you share the present dread Of being sentimental? The world has flung its boutonniere Into the mud, and steps upon it With elaborate gestures! Certain people do this neatly, Using solemn words for consolation: Others angrily stamp their feet, Striving to prove their strength. Second Woman. Sentimentality Is the servant-girl of certain men And the wife of others. She scarcely ever flirts With creative minds, Striving also to become Graceful and indiscreet. First Woman. Sappho and Aristotle Have wandered through the centuries, Dressed in an occasional novelty -- A little twist of outward form. They have always been ashamed To be caught in a friendly talk. Second Woman. When emotion and the mind Engage in deliberate conservation, One hundred nightingales And intellectuals find a common ground, And curse the meeting of their slaves! First Woman. The mind must only play With polished relics of emotion, And the heart must never lighten Burdens of the mind. Second Woman. I desire to be Irrelevant and voluble, Leaving my terse disgust for a moment. I have met an erudite poet. With a northern hardness Motionless beneath his youthful robes. He shuns the quivering fluencies Of emotion, and shifts his dominoes Within a room of tortured angles. But away from this creative room He sells himself to the whims Of his wife, a young virago With a calculating nose. Beneath the flagrant pose Of his double life Emotion and the mind Look disconsolately at each other. First Woman. Lyrical abandon And mental cautiousness Must not mingle to a magic Glowing, yet deliberate! Second Woman. Never spill your wine Upon a page of mathematics. Drink it decently Within the usual tavern. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A WOMAN'S DELUSION by SUSAN HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS THE WOMEN ON CYTHAERON by ROBINSON JEFFERS TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LADIES FOR DINNER, SAIPAN by KENNETH KOCH GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV DEATH (1) by MAXWELL BODENHEIM |
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