Sunday, August 14, 2011

Errors



SIX WORD FRIDAY
suggests 'trial and error'
but I've cheated again.

Six letters, six words, six lines

ERRORS

Errors can happen all the time
Really, they are not a crime.
Relax and simply do your best;
Others, too, don't pass the test.
Reason tells us to just ignore
Silly things we have done before.
*

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THAT VULGAR WALTZ!

MAMA  'So vulgar! So disgusting! So sinful and so shocking!
I simply turn my eyes away when two bodies are interlocking!
A Cotillion and a Polonaise are graceful, charming dances;
And two young people can get to meet and exchange admiring glances.
But this music from Vienna seems to verge on the obscene!
I've been studying the dance-floor and oh what sights I've seen!
Bodies almost touching! Cheek very close to cheek!
I had to use my smelling-salts! I was too upset to speak!
I forbid you to waltz, Matilda, whoever may mark your card.
You'll thank me for it one day though now you may think me hard.'
*
AGNES 'Then you crossed the room towards me and you asked me for a waltz,
And, suddenly, I forgot the dance was vulgar, rude and coarse!
You took me in your arms and then you whirled me round the floor,
And Mama and Papa and all the Aunts just weren't there any more!
Your hold was firm, yet gentle; you moved with style and grace.
Oh your military uniform! And oh your handsome face!
Thank you, thank you, Mr Strauss. All praise is due to you!
Your waltzes from Vienna have made all my dreams come true!'
*

Below see an actual description from the era!

"We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced (we believe for the first time) at the English court on Friday last … it is quite sufficient to cast one’s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs and close compressure on the bodies in their dance, to see that it is indeed far removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is attempted to be forced on the respectable classes of society by the civil examples of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion."

2 comments:

ayala said...

This is cute and true. I like it :)

Melissa Camara Wilkins said...

Ignoring my own errors is hard!
Perhaps that perspective could be jarred.
:)