Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PUPPETS, by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PUPPETS, by                    
First Line: Our life is but a puppet show
Last Line: Just so the puppet dances!
Subject(s): Puppets; Women; Marionettes


I.

OUR life is but a puppet show;
Men, mere mechanic factors;
And rich and poor, and high and low,
Involuntary actors.
Clowns, courtiers, statesmen, serfs, and kings,
The wicked and the pious, --
We all are worked by secret springs,
And move as others ply us.

II.

And yet, vain man! he deems his course
Is by himself decided;
Because he cannot see the force
By which his mind is guided.
But soon or later he will see
That, like his wooden brothers,
He's ever been, and still must be,
A puppet, ruled by others.

III.

Just mark the maid of seventeen,
When first the gentle dreamer,
Unconscious what the mood may mean,
Feels love's delicious tremor, --
What secret power, unknown before,
Can thus so sweetly sway her?
She's but a puppet, nothing more, --
And Cupid is the player!

IV.

Observe yon alderman so grand,
How shrewdly and how neatly
His wife (the young coquette!) has planned
To rule the man completely!
Perhaps a spark of jealous fire
Within the puppet lingers,
I only know the moving wire
Is held in madam's fingers!

V.

And so it is with all mankind,
The womankind befool us;
We're merely puppets, deaf and blind,
And hers the art to rule us;
We laugh and cry and work and play
According to her fancies;
Whate'er the lady's whim may say,
Just so the puppet dances!





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