"And furthermore, I say candidly12, this useless tree is still too common, and we have less glorious symbolisms to which people attribute the famous savour of the laurel. The laurel holds too large a place upon our overpopulated earth, the laurels13 are unworthy of living. Each one of them takes the place of two in the sun. Let them be chopped down, and let their leaves be feared as a poison. Hitherto symbols of poetry and literary science, they are nothing more today than that death-glory which is to glory as death is to life, and as the hand of glory is to the key.
"True glory has abandoned poetry for science, philosophy, acrobatics14, philanthropy, sociology, etc. ...Poets are good for nothing more nowadays than to receive money which they do not earn, since they scarcely ever work and most of them (except for the minstrels) have no talent and no excuse whatsoever15. As to those who have some gifts, they are even more obnoxious16, for if they receive nothing they make more noise than a regiment17 and din18 our ears with their being persecuted19. None of these people have any raison d'être. The prizes which are awarded them are stolen from workers, inventors, scientists, philosophers, acrobats20, philanthropists, sociologists, and so forth. The poets must disappear. Lycurgus would have banished21 them from the Republic, we too must banish22 them. Otherwise, the poets, lazy fiefs, will become our princes and while doing nothing, live off our work, oppressing us, and mocking us. In short, we must rid ourselves immediately of the poets' tyranny.
"If the republics and the kings, if the nations do not take care, the race of poets, too privileged, will increase in such proportions and so rapidly that in a short time no one will want to work, invent, teach, do dangerous feats24, heal the sick and improve the lot of unfortunate men."
An enormous stir greeted this article. It was telegraphed or telephoned everywhere, all the newspapers reproduced it. A few literary journals followed their quotations25 from Tograth's article with mocking reflections as to the scientist; there were doubts as to his mental state. They laughed at the terror which he manifested over the lyric26 laurel. However, the journals of commerce and information made great ado about his warnings. They even said that the article in La Voix was a work of genius.
The article by Horace Tograth had been a singular pretext27, admirably fitted to fan the blaze of hatred28 for poetry. It made its appeal through the traditional sense of the supernatural, whose memory lies in all well born men, and to the instinct for preservation29 which all beings feel. That was why nearly all Tograth's readers were thunderstruck, aghast, and wanted to lose no occasion to obliterate30 poets, who, because of the great numbers of prizes they received, were the subjects of the jealousy31 of all classes of the population. The majority of the newspapers advocated that the government take measures leading to the prohibition32 of all poetry prizes.
In the evening, in a later edition of La Voix, the agricultural chemist, Horace Tograth, published a new article, which, like the other, telephoned or telegraphed everywhere, carried popular emotion to a climax33 in the press, among the public and the governments. The scientist concluded as follows:
"World, choose between thy life and poetry; if serious measures are not taken, civilization is done for. Thou must not hesitate. From tomorrow on begins the new era. Poetry will exist no longer, the lyres too heavy for old inspirations will be broken. The poets will be massacred."
* * *
During the night, life went on just as usual in all the cities of the globe. The article, telegraphed everywhere, had been published in the special editions of the local newspapers and snatched up by the hungry public. The people all sided with Tograth. Ring-leaders descended34 into the streets and, mingling35 with the aroused mobs, excited them further. But most governments held sittings that very night and passed legislation which provoked an indescribable enthusiasm. France, Italy, Spain and Portugal decreed that all poets established on their territory should be imprisoned36 at once pending37 the determination of their lot.
Foreign poets who were absent and sought to re-enter the country risked being condemned38 to death. It was cabled that the United States of America had decided39 to electrocute any man who avowed40 his profession to be that of poetry.
It was telegraphed that in Germany also a decree had been passed ordering all poets in verse or prose found on the imperial territory to be incarcerated41 until further orders. In fact, all of the States on earth, even those who possessed42 nothing but meager43 little bards44 lacking in all lyricism took measures against the very name of poetry. Only England and Russia were exceptions. The laws went into effect at once. All poets who were found on French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese45 territory were arrested on the following day, while the literary magazines appeared all garbed46 in black, lamenting47 the new terror. Dispatches toward noon told how Aristenetius Southwest, the great Negro poet of Haiti, had been cut into pieces and devoured48 by an infuriated populace of negroes and mulattoes. At Cologne, the Kaiserglocke had sounded all night and in the morning Herr Professor Doktor Stimmung, author of a medieval epic49 in forty-eight cantos, having gone out to take the train for Hanover, was set upon by a troop of fanatics50 who beat him with sticks, crying: "Death to the poet!"
He took refuge in the cathedral and remained locked in there with a few beadles, by the excited population of Drikkes, Hanses, and Marizibills. These last particularly, were beside themselves with rage, invoking51 the Virgin52, Saint Ursula and the Three Royal Magi in platdeutsch. Their paternosters and pious53 oaths were interspersed54 with admirably vile23 insults to the professor-poet, who owed his reputation chiefly to the unisexuality of his morals. His head to the ground, he was nearly dying of fear under the big wooden statue of Saint Christopher. He heard the sounds of masons walling up all the gates of the cathedral and resigned himself to die of hunger.
Toward two o'clock it was telegraphed that a sexton poet of Naples had seen the blood of Saint January boil up in the holy phial. The sacristan had gone out to proclaim the miracle and had hastened to the harbor front to play buck-buck. He won all that he desired at this game and a knife thrust in the breast to the bargain.
Telegrams everywhere announced the arrests of poets, one after another, and the electrocution of the American poets was made known early in the afternoon.
In Paris, several young poets of the left bank, who had been spared on account of their lack of notoriety, organized a demonstration55 extending from the Closerie des Lilas to the Conciergerie, where the "prince of poets" was imprisoned.[15]
Troops arrived to disperse56 the demonstrators. The cavalry57 charged. The poets drew their firearms and defended themselves but the people rushed in and took a hand in the mêlée. The poets were strangled and so was everyone else who came to their defense58.
Thus began the great persecution59 which swept rapidly throughout the entire world. In America, after the electrocution of the famous poets, they lynched all the negro minstrels and even many persons who had never in their lives written a rhyme; then they fell upon the whites of literary Bohemia. It was learned that Tograth, after having personally directed the persecution in Australia, had embarked60 at Melbourne.
André Dérain

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1
fixed
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adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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2
bestowed
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赠给,授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
aggregated
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a.聚合的,合计的 | |
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4
parasites
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寄生物( parasite的名词复数 ); 靠他人为生的人; 诸虫 | |
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5
forth
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adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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6
distinguished
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adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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7
miraculous
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adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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8
poetic
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adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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9
mythology
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n.神话,神话学,神话集 | |
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10
allusions
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暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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11
fable
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n.寓言;童话;神话 | |
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12
candidly
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adv.坦率地,直率而诚恳地 | |
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13
laurels
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n.桂冠,荣誉 | |
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14
acrobatics
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n.杂技 | |
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15
whatsoever
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adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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16
obnoxious
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adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的 | |
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17
regiment
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n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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18
din
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n.喧闹声,嘈杂声 | |
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19
persecuted
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(尤指宗教或政治信仰的)迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 ); 烦扰,困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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20
acrobats
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n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 );立场观点善变的人,主张、政见等变化无常的人 | |
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21
banished
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v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
banish
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vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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23
vile
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adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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24
feats
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功绩,伟业,技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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25
quotations
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n.引用( quotation的名词复数 );[商业]行情(报告);(货物或股票的)市价;时价 | |
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26
lyric
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n.抒情诗,歌词;adj.抒情的 | |
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pretext
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n.借口,托词 | |
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28
hatred
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n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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29
preservation
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n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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30
obliterate
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v.擦去,涂抹,去掉...痕迹,消失,除去 | |
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31
jealousy
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n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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32
prohibition
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n.禁止;禁令,禁律 | |
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33
climax
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n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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34
descended
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a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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35
mingling
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adj.混合的 | |
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36
imprisoned
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下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
pending
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prep.直到,等待…期间;adj.待定的;迫近的 | |
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38
condemned
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adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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39
decided
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adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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40
avowed
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adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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41
incarcerated
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钳闭的 | |
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42
possessed
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adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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43
meager
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adj.缺乏的,不足的,瘦的 | |
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44
bards
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n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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45
Portuguese
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n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语 | |
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46
garbed
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v.(尤指某类人穿的特定)服装,衣服,制服( garb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
lamenting
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adj.悲伤的,悲哀的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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48
devoured
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吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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49
epic
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n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的 | |
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50
fanatics
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狂热者,入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
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51
invoking
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v.援引( invoke的现在分词 );行使(权利等);祈求救助;恳求 | |
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52
virgin
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n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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53
pious
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adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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54
interspersed
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adj.[医]散开的;点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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55
demonstration
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n.表明,示范,论证,示威 | |
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56
disperse
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vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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57
cavalry
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n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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58
defense
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n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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59
persecution
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n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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60
embarked
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乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 ); 装载; 从事 | |
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