Gulliver Poem by Kenneth Slessor

Gulliver

Rating: 3.2


I'LL kick your walls to bits, I'll die scratching a tunnel,
If you'll give me a wall, if you'll give me a simple stone,
If you'll do me the honour of a dungeon—
Anything but this tyranny of sinews.
Lashed with a hundred ropes of nerve and bone
I lie, poor helpless Gulliver,
In a twopenny dock for the want of a penny,
Tied up with stuff too cheap, and strings too many.
One chain is usually sufficient for a cur.
Hair over hair, I pick my cables loose,
But still the ridiculous manacles confine me.
I snap them, swollen with sobbing. What's the use?
One hair I break, ten thousand hairs entwine me.
Love, hunger, drunkenness, neuralgia, debt,
Cold weather, hot weather, sleep and age—
If I could only unloose their spongy fingers,
I'd have a chance yet, slip through the cage.
But who ever heard of a cage of hairs?
You can't scrape tunnels in a net.
If you'd give me a chain, if you'd give me honest iron,
If you'd graciously give me a turnkey,
I could break my teeth on a chain, I could bite through metal,
But what can you do with hairs?
For God's sake, call the hangman.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Matthew J Simpson 30 January 2019

This is so cool! I love thy poetry

2 10 Reply
mom 21 August 2022

oi nah oi

0 0 Reply
mom 21 August 2022

oi

0 0 Reply
Smalex 20 July 2022

haha yeah man ya get me

2 0 Reply
MT 20 July 2022

no n! gga

0 0
pooman 20 July 2022

no

0 0
MT 20 July 2022

no

0 0
steve johnson 03 December 2020

I think this poem is in need of some code injection.

1 1 Reply
Marcus Wall 15 November 2020

Alysha Alysha Alysha Alysha Alysha

5 1 Reply
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Kenneth Slessor

Kenneth Slessor

Orange, New South Wales
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