Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DIRE: 14. MENTANA: SECOND ANNIVERSARY, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: By the dead body of hope, the spotless lamb Subject(s): Bodies; Death; Hope; Nations; Dead, The; Optimism | ||||||||
I. By the dead body of Hope, the spotless lamb Thou threwest into the high priest's slaughtering-room, And by the child Despair born red therefrom As, thank the secret sire picked out to cram With spurious spawn thy misconceiving dam, Thou, like a worm from a town's common tomb, Didst creep from forth the kennel of her womb, Born to break down with catapult and ram Man's builded towers of promise, and with breath And tongue to track and hunt his hopes to death; O, by that sweet dead body abused and slain And by that child mismothered -- dog, by all Thy curses thou hast cursed mankind withal, With what curse shall man curse thee back again? II. By the brute soul that made man's soul its food; By time grown poisonous with it; by the hate And horror of all souls not miscreate; By the hour of power that evil hath on good; And by the incognizable fatherhood Which made a whorish womb the shameful gate That opening let out loose to fawn on fate A hound half-blooded ravening for man's blood; (What prayer but this for these should any say, Thou dog of hell, but this that Shakespeare said?) By night deflowered and desecrated day, That fall as one curse on one cursed head, 'Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, That I may live to say, the dog is dead! 1869. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOPE IS NOT FOR THE WISE by ROBINSON JEFFERS SONNET by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPRING FLOODS by MAURICE BARING SONNET: 9. HOPE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT by DEREK MAHON A BALLAD OF DEATH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE |
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