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Renée Vivien

The Symbolist poet Renée Vivien was born on June 11, 1877, as Pauline Mary Tarn in Paddington, England. Her father, John Tarn, was a well-off merchant from Scotland; her mother, Mary Gillet Bennett, was an

Pillory, The

by Renée Vivien (1877–1909)

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16

For a long time, I was nailed to the pillory,

And some women, seeing me suffering, laughed.

Then, some men took mud in their hands

With which to spatter my temple and cheeks.

The sobs welled up in me, swelling like waves,

But my pride made me choke back the tears.

No one said, ‘She is perhaps less evil than

We suspect, she is perhaps a poor soul.’

The square was public and everyone had come,

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Poets Book of Days

June 11

Ben Jonson born, 1572

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What late 19th-century poetic movement was disparaged in Macmillan's Magazine as representing "a sick indifference to the things of our own time, and a spurious devotion to whatever is foreign, exotic, archaic or grotesque"?

Answer

The Pre-Raphaelites. Painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the co-founders.

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