The tea-rose tea-gown, etc. Supplants the mousseline of Cos, The pianola "replaces" Sappho's barbitos. Christ follows Dionysus, Phallic and ambrosial Made way for macerations, Caliban casts out Ariel. All things are a flowing, Sage Heracleitus says; But a tawdry cheapness Shall outlast our days. Even the Christian beauty Defects -- after Samothrace, We see To Kalon Decreed in the market place. Faun's flesh is not to us, Nor the saint's vision. We have the press for wafer; Franchise for circumcision. All men, in law, are equals. Free of Pisistratus, We choose a knave or an eunuch To rule over us. O bright Apollo, Tin andra, tin heroa, tin a theon, What god, man, or hero Shall I place a tin wreath upon! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN EXPATIATION ON THE COMBINING OF WEATHERS AT THIRTY .... by HAYDEN CARRUTH WISDOM COMETH WITH THE YEARS by COUNTEE CULLEN WHEN I AM DEAD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON NEIGHBORS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE COAT OF FIRE by EDITH SITWELL |