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C J Dennis - Earth`s Oldest Show
Work rating: Low

Not in our public parks, for private gain.
   This centuries-old precursor of all dramas
That lured babes in old Italy and Spain
   To plague for pence their medieval mamas.
Not for the modern child: this crude display
   Of brutal bouts with staves, or battles fictic;
So wise and reverend city elders say.
   But we might get lighted fountains .... `Ow hartistic!
 
Not in our playgrounds may the showman pitch
   His box of tricks that, from our great-gand-daddies
And their great-great-grand-daddies, drew those rich,
   Fat chuckles of pure joy, when they were laddies.
Not for our bairns: that vulgar figure, Punch
   With his hypocrisy and moods plenetic,
His Mammoth nose, his ugly, malformed hunch.
   But we might have colored fountains .... `Ow hesthetic!
  
Not Punch: that wicked well-loved reprobate,
   Beneath false jocularity concealing
A world of mordant and malicious hate;
   Beneath his leer, sad lack of all nice feeling.
Not Judy: feckless spouse, doomed ne`er to know
   Domestic peace, but e`er to find some rift in
The matrimonial lute. A sordid show!
   But illuminated water! .... So hupliftin`.
 
Ponder effects upon the plastic mond:
   Police made victims of a murderer`s revel!
Infanticide! Wife beating! Then to find
   A crude portrayal of a personal devil!
It must creat false values, such low life
   As Punchinello and his gang would paint it.
A homicidal crook with half-wit wife!
   But we might have rainbow fountains .... `Ighbrow, hain`t it?
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