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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CARTOONS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, by STIRLING BOWEN First Line: You must have shocked your father when you came Last Line: We bear or hurl till we or kings fall dead. Subject(s): French Revolution (1848); February Revolution | |||
I. MIRABEAU You must have shocked your father when you came, Club-footed, pimpled. 'Twas for him as when A gardener finds a crooked root to tend; He feared the flower would stink and bring him shame. He did not want your morals to be lame At least. It was the same old thing again. . . . Revolt has always claimed the best in men And so you cried, "God damn the family name!" And yet how sad a thing it was for France. . . . You spent just half your strength to make France free And half in jail through women and the dance. And at the cry, "To arms!" you did but see A dearer challenge in a haughty glance, Behind the throne the lips of Queen Marie. II. THEROIGNE DE MERICOURT You taught more economics than a tome Contains, you women marching on Versailles. You were not there to save a world, or try. Your theory was the simple monochrome Of hunger, black as crusts you ate at home. And either you or Louis had to die. That simpler thinker only blinked his eye Like Nero fiddling in the flames of Rome. And you, Theroigne, there where none had grown, Led forth a Reason: Women crying, "Bread," Plain women in the rain before a throne. Assemblies talked, you knew not what they said. You taught us there that hunger is the stone We bear or hurl till we or kings fall dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROM THE EARTH, A CRY by JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY THE CITY: 1. VILLAGE FANTASY - THE QUEST by STIRLING BOWEN THE CITY: 2. THE CITY by STIRLING BOWEN THE FUNERAL OF ANTONIO GIANNO by STIRLING BOWEN THE IMPOSSIBLE INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE ARS POETICA by HAYDEN CARRUTH GARRISON by AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT THE RAIN by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES UPON THE CIRCUMCISION by JOHN MILTON |
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