Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SLAVE MARKET, by GORDON BOTTOMLEY Poet's Biography First Line: In bronze (true flesh of thought) stern shifting contours Last Line: Pass thou and gaze, she is more greatly thine. Subject(s): Helen Of Troy; Mythology - Classical | ||||||||
IN bronze (true flesh of thought) stern shifting contours. Drawings wherein the pen-strokes yield and harden Until each interspace seems ivory. Paintings where crises of desire have set A glow between the blending of clear deeps, And also knowledge of godhead and decay. Medals with women and bowed unicorns. A golden snake for Venice ladies' teeth. Poems in types like agate intaglios. Pale wine-cups out of Greece stained with dim deeds Of gods like men, as though with juice of grapes. Such things, all things that men have made by passion, Are curst with the old restlessness of beauty, The loneliness of beauty, the aloofness. They may remain within a little room To light a loving one; but death divides them. They go to make fame certain for some man So ignorant of them he has grown rich; He turns from them, he lends them unto nations Until he is sure that nations know them his. They shall be found in cities ruinous. They do not know their tenants, nor their values Bred by much fingering in the market-house. Sackt Troy and queens at auction: if thou wert there, Wouldst thou buy Helen ere her husband came? Passing from hand to hand so passively Helen was Helen's secret, Helen's own. Pass thou and gaze, she is more greatly thine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#11): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND MEDUSA by MARVIN BELL THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#11): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND MEDUSA by MARVIN BELL THE BIRTH OF VENUS by HAYDEN CARRUTH LEDA 2: A NOTE ON VISITATIONS by LUCILLE CLIFTON LEDA 3: A PERSONAL NOTE (RE: VISITATIONS) by LUCILLE CLIFTON UNEXPECTED HOLIDAY by STEPHEN DOBYNS |
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