Presented without comment... have fun with this (or be horrified!)
"Down, Wanton, Down!" by Robert Graves
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 and effect a breach –
Indifferent what you storm or why,
So be that in the breach you die!
Love may be blind, but Love at least
Knows what is man and what 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!
(1933)
Ms. Prodromo showed this to me and Kayley when we were in her class room at lunch today. I don't like Ms. Prodromo anymore. This poem is just... eww... It has amusing diction and rhyme/meter though. (I don't have to write more, right?)
ReplyDeleteNoooooooooo…. everyone, just don't respond to this poem. You'll feel better having the F than feeling stupid and grossed out when you realize what this disgusting poem means. Honest.
DeleteI still can't believe the author is shameless enough to publish something as disturbing as this. With his name attached to it. So everyone who reads and understands the poem thinks to themselves, "Wow, this Robert Graves guy is really nasty! I hope his mom never read this!"
We need to go on strike. No more icky poems. At least, we have to know what they mean before blindly commenting about them...
Should I go back to death poems?
DeleteEven THAT would be better!
DeleteOh you still love me, Kate!
ReplyDeleteThe tone of this poem seems scolding because of the phrasing and punctuation. It sounds like the narrator is scolding a prostitute because a wanton is also a whore... not just a type of Chinese food. The subject in this poem could even be jealousy because it is usually associated with women. Jealousy is like a beast trying to breach love. The narrator may be referring to the wanton as an emotional prostitute. The punctuation makes the tone seem scolding because of the exclamation points. There is even some enjambment in this poem.
ReplyDeleteThe title make it seem as if its about a dog named Wanton jumping on people. The poem seems to about about a man who acts like a beast when lusting after women. The again I could also be very wrong, because It seems It might be possibly addressing a woman. Anyway, each line seems to rhyme with the next in each stanza. The attitude of the narrator seems to be one of either disappointment or frustration. I don't know, I don't like poetry.
ReplyDeleteThis poem seems to have a harsh tone. The words "love" and "beauty" are said a lot throughout the poem to maybe signify the characteristics Wanton possesses. The diction is very insulting revealing how awful Wanton really is. Also, every two lines in the poem rhyme. I also noticed that the poem gradually starts getting harsher. At the end of the poem it says the same thing as in the beginning "Down, wanton, down!" but I'm not sure what the significance is there.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting part of this poem to me was the fact that "Beauty" and "Love" are capitalized. Unless this is simply a typo made multiple times (which I doubt) then this must have some sort of underlying meaning. I believe that the narrator is talking about Beauty and Love as if they are people themselves. This goes hand-in-hand with the constant personification of these two words. It gives the idea that these may be two people he doesn't know that he is talking about. As I'm writing this, I'm now just realizing what this poem is really about. Whyyyy Ms. Prodromo, WHYYYY. This is the perfect poem for a teenage boy!
ReplyDeleteAH HA HA HA HA HA! (Please imagine that laugh as completely evil...)
DeleteI agree with Chris. I think this poem is about a man trying to control his lust. It's kind of hilarious!
ReplyDelete....... Ms. Prodromo, where, in the dark depths of the internet, do you find these things. But a better question would be, who would dare share this with a group of teenagers? Setting aside the obvious tone of the poem, each line in the stanzas hold eight syllables, and the author seems to be addressing the reader directly, but rathe in a questioning sense. The narrator seems to picking apart the individual relationships between love and beauty by personifying them as man and woman. Making Love the man is interesting because it describes him as blind, and based on my research for the project, males tend to base beauty more on looks than women do. This could have a double meaning though because love may be blind to the beauty within, but it also says it knows the boundary between mad love and being inhuman. Beauty is described as a more choosy persona, and prefers some less rugged qualities and more elegance. This poem goes nicely with the bluest eye and our research projects, so I see why it was shared with us, but really? Could you not have found a cleaner one than this?
ReplyDeleteInternet! This is from 1932! I got it from a book! And you KNOW it's hilarious!
DeleteWhy must we read these poems! Here I was hoping to read another poem about murder, but no, we have to read a poem on lust. Sometimes I feel like I am starting to understand why we get these poems, and then this happens... :(
ReplyDeleteSometimes I just like to make sure you guys are paying attention...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePicture this if you can: I'm sitting on the couch and I decide to look at the poem for the weekend. I get to the website and see "Down, Wanton, Down." When I click on the poem I am thinking "Oh, this poem must be about a dog or something innocent," but as usual, Ms Prodromo comes to the rescue with her surprises. When I got to the end realized what the poem was actually about, I burst out laughing. This poem is so comical, and kind of gross to think about. The way it cuplets makes it even better because it keeps the poem flowing. The diction is so perfect, like the way he uses "beast" and "Bombard-captain." They make what he describing seem like it is control. And the name "Wanton." This name just adds to the comedy of the poem.Though this poem is about lust, I don't get why everyone is complaining, this poem is actually really funny!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree I thought it was going to be about a dog. As I keep reading the true meaning of this pome became clear to me. I believe that the reason the word love and beauty are capitalized is because they both have a great significance in the pome.
DeleteUhm... I just don't know why I learned English.. I'm really sad that I understood the poem.
ReplyDeleteAnyways I agree with what Chris said.. But WHY Ms. P! </3
By the way is it aabb? Just wondering
I think this poem is so funny! It wasn't until the second time I read it through that I realized the meaning of it. At first I was a bit disturbed, but now I find it hilarious. The subtlety of the language and the different names make this poem so comical. I also like the meter and the way it flows.
ReplyDeleteI read the title of this poem, and I honestly thought it was going to be about a pet or something. But, no! Once I figured out what the poem was talking about, I was pretty shocked and kind of disturbed. It actual meaning is SO much different from what I thought. I thought the diction of this poem was interesting, however.
ReplyDeleteFirst I thought the narrator was yelling at his dog or something but then I realized what this poem is really about and I was kind of disturbed. Once I read the whole poem through knowing what he was really talking about it was really interesting how it changed the whole poem. It was actually really funny.
ReplyDeleteThe end of the lines rhyme the tone is a bit condescending. Like the narrator is reproaching someone of all their faults. The ending is funny.
ReplyDeleteOkay this is really disturbing. The poet scolds at "wanton" for his behavior. Wanton is the personification of his male part. This poem is a dramatic monologue, which is ironic because he's basically talking to himself. There is no audience in the speech. The poet is only talking to wanton, his man part. It appears that he is an owner to a dog, talking him down for his "behavior." The poet is ashamed of himself to be so easily aroused at the slightest hint of sex. This desire is viewed as animalistic or aggressive. The words "Love" and "Beauty" are a contrast to wanton since they are capitalized throughout the beginning. The named of his part is wonton,which is lower cased, resembles a lower status to Love and Beauty.
ReplyDeleteArianna drops the mic!
DeleteWell done!
I could have spent my entire life living my own bubble of denial thinking that poets have standards, but then Mrs. P makes us read this. Now I will have to question the cleanliness of any poem I read from now on. Anyway, there are several questions I have about this poem (some of which I do not want answered) but here I go. Is Love really blind, or is this some sort of metaphor? What was the author doing when he decided to write this poem? What's up with knowing man from beast? Is he talking about *ahem* Wonton raising his head? If so... WHY??
ReplyDeleteYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY it posted.
ReplyDeleteAt first I didn't understand the poem, but then I read through again. I got a sense that he is a disturbed individual while reading the last stanza. I was almost 99% positive I knew what message this poem was saying, but there was still that 1% of doubt, so I clarified with Anika. When she agreed I literally laughed so hard. Very clever but still... ew.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator seems to be mocking himself and his own...impulsive ways. There are some double entendre's there...The narrator disapproves of his own lust and wishes to subdue it. Lust will do whatever it takes to be satiated.
ReplyDeleteThis is about some guy who can't keep his "Wanton" down.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud...
DeleteI can hint at what Kate and Kaley are getting at. I mean when the author says, "Down, Wanton, down," it is obvious what that means. Other than that, however, I can't quite understand what the meaning of everything else is. The most I came up with is that you should go for brains rather than lust/love.
ReplyDeleteI can remember Ms. Prodromo in class smiling evily and saying, "Don't worry, no one dies in this poem." True that. HOWEVER, this poem is far more weirder than murder. I would rather read a poem about murder than this. So ummmmm, Ms. Prodromo, all i can say is that the theme is lust, and you are very evil. This is the second funniest thing that happened to me today besides the superbowl. LOL PEYTON MANNING'S FACE AFTER EACH INTERCEPTION
ReplyDeleteThis poem is annoyingly figurative about the obvious details, as though not using metaphors could've made it any worse. On top of that, it also chooses to be literal about the details that, without my complaint, could have stayed figurative. The point of the rhyme, in my opinion, is to make the reader think about what the poem is really about, and thus miss it entirely. I can't decide if there's a poor use of subtlety here or if there isn't a better use of it in all the world. In either scenario, it works.
ReplyDeleteI seriously love this poem so much. There is not a single aspect of it that can't be interpreted multiple ways. I don't know why everyone is reacting so badly to this poem, I mean really people. The form of the poem is so well put together and the diction is brilliant in the way that it makes the reader understand the message without ever saying anything inappropriate. It's probably the most clever thing I've seen in a while.
ReplyDeleteYou get an extra cup of tea.
DeleteI didn't understand the poem the first couple of times, but I noticed the words head, lust, and love. I put things together. Basically, the dude gets hard ons and can't keep it down. From what I understand, this man like all types of ladies. Good for him.
ReplyDeleteDying laughing here...
DeleteAs everyone else has said, ew. This was not a pleasant poem to read. Murder would have been better and entertaining. Aside from the tone, the author rhymes every two lines, using the aabb pattern in each stanza.
ReplyDeleteI read this two or three times before I got it, but I think it is pretty funny. The man pities and scolds the blind lust he feels and knows nothing more than what he likes. From reading it, I imagined the man in an awkward situation, where he finds himself attracted to a woman he has no interest in or attracted to something else-I don't know what this guys likes.
ReplyDeleteSo there is rhyming (A,A,B,B) and its gross. This man is having issues with his "thinking." I agree with most people who say the death poems are better. So yeah, this is gross.
ReplyDeleteAt first the title made me think of a dog, then after reading it made me think if a more personal part of the male anatomy. Thanks for ruining my Sunday evening! :)
This poem is really gross and wierd. I can't understand why this poem was written in the first place and this creeps me out that an old man probably wrote this. The poem has rhyming and four lines per stanza. Also, the author capitilizes the words love and beauty. The first and last line of the poem are the same which unifies the poem.
ReplyDeleteI did not like reading this. This poem is really gross. The only things that I found interesting about this poem were the author's diction and the aabb rhyming.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is disgusting and its not fun to read this at all. There is an AABB rhyme pattern where there is a rhyme every two lines. It creeps me out that someone would decide to write a poem about this, and for Ms.Prodromo to post it for us to read.
ReplyDeleteSo during reading this poem I gave up my first assumption that this was a dog and didn't think about the title at all. At first I thought Love, and Beauty were capitalized for a literature reason. Now I understand it might have been very simple, they are the names of prostitutes! Otherwise it had regular rhyming and a twist at the end!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first starting reading the poem, I thought it was going to be about a dog and his owner yelling at him. But once I got further into the poem, I realized what it really meant. I was kinda disturbed but also thought it was really funny. I also noticed that the first two lines and the second two lines always rhyme.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really disturbing poem... at first I didn't understand what it was about but then I read some of the comments and discussed with some people and figured out what the poem was about. Now every time I think of "Down Wanton Down" I'll have a dirty image. This poem is stupid and boring.
ReplyDeleteI actually like how this poem is written which may be an unpopular opinion,but I do think this guy is very vulgar. I also think this guy is mad at himself for being "attracted" to non-human "beasts," and that is really gross. It is unfortunate that this poem wrote so well about this disgusting man's problem.
ReplyDeleteI read this poem to my sister and we laughed. It's about a man trying to control his lust. He is mad at himself for reacting how he did. I don't really know what else I can say that isn't inappropriate.
ReplyDeletehahahahahahahahahahahahahah! This guy can't control what's happening in his pants.
ReplyDeleteI read this poem after people told me it was gross. I didn't get it at first but I understood after the third time I read it. The author uses words like "Presto!" and "gaze" that threw me off which makes it so clever. It seems sort of majestic after for using "sworn" and "beast". The rhyme is AABB and the author uses exclamation and question marks to exaggerate his demands toward "Wanton".
ReplyDeleteThis poem is soooooooooo hilarious. I love how the diction is so clever despite the subject of the poem. At first I wasn't sure if I was correct about the subject of the poem, but when I looked up the meaning of wanton, I couldn't stop laughing. Anyways, this guy really wants his wanton down.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this poem is gross, it is very very clever. The author does not actually use any word that is inappropriate however when you put it all together, the reader picks up on what he is really talking about. The poems title, first line, and last line all start with "Down, wanton, down!". The capitalization of the words Love and Beauty make it seem like the author has possession of those things.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can understand the poem, it is about sex, yes? A man seems to be ordering his penis to become flagellant again, but he keeps on describing things that I don't quite get. Because this man is talking to himself (I think he is), then perhaps he is lonely. My suggestion to this guy is to invite a woman over. That way, he can talk with another person, not being so lonely anymore, then he'll have the courage to seduce her. Once that is achieved, they can have sexual intercourse, and after his ejaculation, his erection will be gone and he will be satisfied!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha it seems as if wanton needs to "calm down". I am not yet sure whether wanton is a person, the mans dog, or maybe he made up a name for his penis. I appreciate how intriguing this poem is.
ReplyDeleteYou're all acting like you aren't highschoolers haha.
ReplyDeleteBut what really stands out here is the capitalization of Love and Beauty. He's embarrassed at how easily he gets horny, and scolds the personification of his dingaling "wanton." He obviously regards love and beauty higher than his longschlongdong, because he can't even bring himself to capitalize the name he gave it. He doesn't have the balls to do it. (Hahah get it? I'm a dork)
Wanton is the name of the speaker's erection. The speaker calls his erection angry-headed and witless, which I think is uncalled for, because he's ashamed of his erection for having such low standards.
ReplyDelete