End of an Orgy (A Cento)

Posted 07-18-2005 at PFFA.


End of an Orgy

Look on the tragic loading of this bed
Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
Tut! I am in their bosoms, and I know
As one who sits and gazes from above

Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
You may as well go stand upon the beach
But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?
Rife in her wrongs, more lawless, and more lewd

Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm
My fingers fidget like ten idle brats
Eliminate the ninnies and the twits

There is a bondage worse, far worse, to bear
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!


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An example of a cento or patchwork poem. Each line is taken from a different poem (or verse -- this one is mostly Shakespeare). Here's the thing: the only way to revise a cento is to read more poetry. Here's the other thing: I really like the Devo lyric.

All poetic credit due:

L1: Othello, Act V. Scene II. (William Shakespeare)
L2: Macbeth, Act IV.Scene III. (W.S.)
L3: Julius Caesar, Act V. Scene I. (W.S.)
L4: Sonnets from the Portuguese - XV (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
L5: The Waste Land, (T.S. Eliot)
L6: The Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Scene I. (W.S.)
L7: Titus Andronicus, Act V. Scene I. (W.S.)
L8: Andromeda (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
L9: Hamlet, Act V. Scene I. (W.S.)
L10: Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV. Scene I. (W.S.)
L11: Wild With All Regrets (Wilfred Owen)
L12: Through Being Cool (Devo)
L13: "There is a bondage worse, far worse, to bear" (William Wordsworth)
L14: Timon of Athens, Act III. Scene VI. (W.S.)