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Stephens

 

James Stephens
1882-1950

 

"Righteous Anger"

 

The lanky hank of a she in the inn over there
Nearly killed me for asking the loan of a glass of beer;
May the devil grip the whey-faced slut by the hair,
And beat bad manners out of her skin for a year.

That parboiled imp, with the hardest jaw you will see
On virtue's path, and a voice that would rasp the dead,
Came roaring and raging the minute she looked at me,
And threw me out of the house on the back of my head!

If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day;
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange!
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.

Check Stephens' contemporary countryman
John Synge's Irish curse
(also directed at a woman).

Buy James Stephens' poetry

POETS Main Page INDEX of Poets INDEX of Titles & First Lines Stephens menu