Larry Leigh

Name: The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse
Author: Larry Leigh

Summary

“The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse”, is a work by Larry Leigh. It explores elements such as curved females, hump and usefulness.

Quotes from The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse (Larry Leigh)

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ In every Art-study you’ll find it is best,
To model from Nature with uniform zest.
Oh, come now with me! I’ll show you to-night,
The model I spoke of—a pitiful sight.
We’ll leave the gay avenue—this is the way—
Through byways and lanes where the clear light of day
Has no room to enter. Here godless despair
Finds vent in wild curses and cries—do you dare
[39]
To utter reproaches? Come, come, do not shrink;
You find the air stifling? Why, now only think,
You’re here but a moment and quite lose your breath;
Yet many will dwell here from birth unto death. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ At the thought that on waking how hungry they’ll feel.
“Oh! what shall I give them? the crusts are quite dry,
Yet they’re all that I have.” With many a sigh
She turns to her work, for she knows when ’tis done
More bread can be bought with the shilling she’s won.
[44]
O brave, weary mother! the morning has come;
You’re hungry and cold, but the work is not done.
Thus through the sad seasons she’s bent o’er her knee
So low that her back has a curve, don’t you see—
A curve truly Grecian! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ Is surely a sign—at least, such was the notion—
Of youth and of health. Even some thought that grace
Had a meaning and charm quite beyond a doll face.
But all such ideas have of course now gone by
In times when the fashions do Nature defy. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ The female whose spine the best doctors couldn’t mend,
But oh! she invented “the true Grecian bend!”
A “bend” born of suffering truly pathetic,
A “bend” scientific as well as æsthetic.
[36]
Now all of you know, I make bold to infer,
The “colic” and “pains” did in Paris occur.
Of course we Americans would not receive
Any fashions but those of imported disease:
Excuse me: I mean that the “modes” are imported,
For it is very true, as has oft been reported,
We worship all things of Parisian extraction;
Why, even its morals (?) have quite an attraction! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ That our stylish Parisian was Fashion’s dear slave,
And to its sweet service her brain and time gave.
[7]
If she had been poet or artist or sage,
Or one of “the women,” so called, “of the age,”
With missions to Art, or the indigent poor,
Her crooked vertébra she might well endure.
For ’tis of no consequence, surely, I say,
If strong-minded women who flaunt in our day
Their rights to more freedom for work and for speech
Are placed by disease quite beyond the world’s reach. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ The sight of curved females at first raised a question
Which seemed to me worthy some solid reflection.
The question was this: if ’tis true as averred,
Human origin may to the ape be referred,
Then we are now turning, I boldly declare,
To monkeys again. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ The “true Grecian bend,” and it was not in vain.
[25]
The day now arrived for the startling “début,”
And our heroine smiling emerged to the view
Of the Boulevards, where “tout le monde” in a maze
At the strange apparatus in wonder did gaze.
This strange apparatus, as I before said,
Perched on heels that supported a hump on the head,
A hump on the back and a crook in the arm
Presented a vision entitled to charm
[26]
The eyes of all artists; for sure ’tis their duty
To recognize always the true curve of beauty ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Larry Leigh, The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse

“ Are forced to stop work and all bold agitations
Of questions important to churches and nations
[9]
Because of a weakness of brain and of spine?
(Both organs, alas! being in a decline.)
It matters but little, if women like these,
Are deprived of all usefulness, comfort, and ease. ”

Larry Leigh

Summary

Quotes from The True Grecian Bend: A Story in Verse (Larry Leigh)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature