Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HERE IS MUSIC: DOUBLE BALLADE WITH DOUBLE REFRAIN (2), by AUSTIN PHILIPS First Line: The crippled, phrygian, stoic freedman said Last Line: Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. Subject(s): Prostitution; Harlots; Whores; Brothels | ||||||||
THE crippled, Phrygian, Stoic Freedman said With cynic truth that different people sell Themselves at different prices in their need, (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) I have seen many mortals vendible And marked their salesmanship, stood, sat and scanned All kinds of souls at auction, watched as well Some of them re-self-sold at second hand. I have observed arrivistes, strongly swayed By lust of place and pow'r, a miracle Of shameless eagerness to escalade (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) The Citadel, Success, make mean appeal To prejudice, forge promise built on sand, Repudiate agreement, burn cartel. ... Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. I have known thieves whose plot and plan were played Less for themselves than for the fancied weal Of some loved lasswhose lawless ambuscade (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) Their human fondness made less culpable. ... Financiers, too, who had compass'd all they plann'd For wife and offspring but for Fortune's wheel. ... Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. I have sent men to prisonthose who laid Quick hands on letters, and so came to swell The toll of wrongful doers, no-wise in crusade (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) Against their fellows, but bewitched by spell Of tout and Turf andtouched as though with wand Of some enchanter loosing Life's fardel Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. I have seen women, pitiful, parade Once beauteous bodies in some black bordel, Harlot or pervert, brought and forced to wade (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) Through filth, to feed some hateful 'mackerel' Who battened on their bodies, bade them stand Himself spectator, pimp, stooge, manciple Self-sold and re-self-sold at second hand. I have tracked many mansions in this trade, Marts multitudinous, wherein there dwell The all-but-good, the nearly-bad, brigade, (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) The wholly weak, the almost strong, the fell, The foul, the base, the pedant-soul'd, the band Bestial, the sinning saint, the leal losel. ... Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. Envoi Such goes without surcease the cavalcade Of Life; but all these souls thus mercable One prostitute surpasses, sets in shade, (Each paves his own and personal path towards Hell!) This is that cur, ten times contemptible, Who at a vengeful woman's vile command Breaks with an old, true friend and trots at heel, Self-soldand re-self-sold at second hand. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVING YOU IN FLEMISH by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A MAN AND WOMAN ABSOLUTELY WHITE by ANDRE BRETON AFTER THREE PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRASSAI by NORMAN DUBIE THE VIOLENT SPACE by ETHERIDGE KNIGHT AN OLD WHOREHOUSE by MARY OLIVER CHICAGO CABARET by KENNETH REXROTH FOR A MASSEUSE AND PROSTITUTE by KENNETH REXROTH HARRISON STREET COURT by CARL SANDBURG A BALLADE OF GREEN FIELDS; FOR F.W.M. by AUSTIN PHILIPS |
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