English Poem “Phallus:” of poet Alec Derwent Hope complete poem with summery for Students.

Phallus:

Alec Derwent Hope

This was the gods’ god,

The leashed divinity,

Divine divining rod

And Me within the me.

By mindlight tower and tree

Its shadow on the ground

Throw, and in darkness she

Whose weapon is her wound

Fends off the knife, the sword,

The Tiger and the Snake;

It stalks the virgin’s bed

And bites her wide awake.

Her Bab-el-Mandeb waits

Her Red Sea gate of tears:

The blood-sponge god dilates,

His rigid pomp appears;

Sets in the toothless mouth

A tongue of prophecy.

It speaks in naked Truth

Indifference for me

Love, a romantic slime

That lubricates his way

Against the stream of Time.

And though I win the day

His garrisons deep down

Ignore my victory,

Abandon this doomed town,

Crawl through a sewer and flee.

A certain triumph, of course,

Bribes me with brief joy:

Stiffly my Wooden Horse

Receive into your Troy.

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