<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389830" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">(In Memoriam Marina Tsvetayeva, Anna Wickham, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare¹s sister, etc., etc.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The best slave<br>does not need to be beaten.<br>She beats herself.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Not with a leather whip,<br>or with stick or twigs,<br>not with a blackjack<br>or a billyclub,<br>but with the fine whip<br>of her own tongue<br>& the subtle beating<br>of her mind<br>against her mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For who can hate her half so well<br>as she hates herself?<br>& who can match the finesse<br>of her self-abuse?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Years of training<br>are required for this.<br>Twenty years<br>of subtle self-indulgence,<br>self-denial;<br>until the subject<br>thinks herself a queen<br>& yet a beggar -<br>both at the same time.<br>She must doubt herself<br>in everything but love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She must choose passionately<br>& badly.<br>She must feel lost as a dog<br>without her master.<br>She must refer all moral questions<br>to her mirror.<br>She must fall in love with a cossack<br>or a poet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She must never go out of the house<br>unless veiled in paint.<br>She must wear tight shoes<br>so she always remembers her bondage.<br>She must never forget<br>she is rooted in the ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Though she is quick to learn<br>& admittedly clever,<br>her natural doubt of herself<br>should make her so weak<br>that she dabbles brilliantly<br>in half a dozen talents<br>& thus embellishes<br>but does not change<br>our life.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">If she's an artist<br>& comes close to genius,<br>the very fact of her gift<br>should cause her such pain<br>that she will take her own life<br>rather than best us.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">& after she dies, we will cry<br>& make her a saint.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Erica+Jong">Erica Jong</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389830" data-title="Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit de Erica Jong" data-description="(In Memoriam Marina Tsvetayeva, Anna Wickham, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare¹s sister, etc., etc.) The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself. Not with a leather whip, or with stick or twigs, not with a blackjack or a billyclub, bu..."></div> </div> </div>

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