Exordium-Poem

 

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EXORDIUM

 Virgins and Goodwives, maidservants and gossips

Mumbling their rosaries on their evening walk,

If you have a Christian thought within your soul,

If the priest warns you of the eternal Satan,

You shrink from reading the horrible and gory

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Boys and poor creeps, bad old men and pre-teens

If witches drown you under your coverlets,

If at night, taper flickering in the darkness,

You see the wall berouged with skeletons,

You shrink from reading the horrible and gory

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You grannies and you nannies, who in long speeches

Recite for small boys silly magical tales, 

If your dreams are assailed by sweaty visions

Of Lamias, Mandrakes, of specters and demons,

You shrink from reading the horrible and gory

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By Arrigo Boito

Translated by John Hollander

Taken from "Poems Bewitched and Haunted" by John Hollander