Down, Wanton, Down!
1933
Down, wanton, down! Have you no shame
That at the whisper of Love's name,
Or Beauty's, presto! up you raise
Your angry head and stand at gaze?
Poor bombard-captain, sworn to reach
The ravelin 1 and effect a breach -
Indifferent what you storm or why,
So be that in the breach you die! 2
Love may be blind, but Love at least
Knows what is a man and whar mere beast;
Or beauty wayward, but requires
More delicacy from her squires.
Tell me, my witless, whose one boast
Could be your staunchness at the post,
When were you made a man of parts
To think fine and profess the arts?
Will many-gifted Beauty come
Bowing to your bald rule of thumb,
Or Love swear loyalty to your crown?
Be gone, have done! Down, wanton, down!
1) Fortified protection from a castle wall
2) A pun on the verb "to die" in sens of "to achieve orgasm" (common from the 16th to 18th cent.)
NOTE also that "breach" and "breech" have the same pronunciation...
The Reader Over My shoulder
1938
You, reading over my shoulder, peering beneath
My writing arm - I suddenly feel your breath
Hot on my hand or on my nape,
So interrupt my theme, scratching these few
Words on the margin for you, namely you,
Too.human shape fixed in that shape: -
All the saying of things against myself
And for myself I have well done myself.
What now, old enemy, shall you do
But quote and underline, thrusting yourself
Against me, as amabassador of myself,
In damned confusion of myself and you?
For you in strutting, you in sycophancy,
Have played too long this other self of me,
Doubling the part of judge and patron
With that of creaking grind-stone to my wit.
Know me, have done: I am a proud spirit
And you for ever clay. Have done.
Go to Robert Graves's page.
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