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I Have No Gun,But I Can Spit

Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes,
And all the untilled air between
Is private pagus or demesne.
Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes
I beckon you to fraternize,
Beware of rudely crossing it:
I have no gun, but I can spit.

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1 - 12 of 12
  • Lowercase Prelude
    March 26
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    quite cleverly written, especially the last line.


  • March 25
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    I like it.. I wonder if he was from the south...


    He was born in the same area as me. The north [of England] and moved to the Midlands MOD NOTE

  • Papagallo
    March 25

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    I have read lots of his work, but never this one. I bet he was quite a character in his day. He also wrote, as they now say, some really heavy verse.

  • SpiritMother
    March 25
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    Personally, I loved his wit and ryhyme..it was/is still hilarious and a True Grit for his time.


  • Yemassee Moderators member
    March 25

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    I appreciate the pointed humor. I'm sure he made a great curmudgeon, lol.

    Mine frontier is 10 feet and I have a pole.


  • rufina caraid Moderators member
    March 25
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    Not one of my favourites of his but a very definite way of saying 'stay out of my personal' 30 inch' space until invited in'. Quite a timely reading as personal space in modern times is aggessively attacked, debased and under threat. I can only guess that Auden's way worked for him.
    ~Von~


  • March 25

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    Searching for definition

    This is different for sure. Is this the reaction of a rejected male? Sexual frustation bleeding through is we can't have sex let's fight? I think the poem over all lacks definition. He died in the year of my birth and I hope he rests well.


  • March 25
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    this is one of my fav. from auden.


  • March 25
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    i personally dont like it at all, and i can say that cause he's dead.

    • mzmikki
      March 25
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      I cannot stop laughing at this comment.... I was thinking the exact same thing.... but not the part about him being dead... That's hilarious....


  • I-Like-Rhymes Moderators member
    March 24

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    Written in the era before one's "personal space" was such a big issue I think that Auden's message is a clear one that many would applaud in these more crowded times.

  • ecrivain01
    March 24

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    I think ...

    that this is, possibly, his worst poem ever. That said, it's funny in its own way. I have never considered bodily functions humorous, period. Perhaps that accounts for why I am not really much taken with this poem.

1 - 12 of 12