Recontextualizing Oscar Wilde
“For years, Dorian Gray
could not free himself
from the influence of
this book”
—Oscar Wilde,
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Today’s Dorian Gray—the same beauty
That had so fascinated—Basil Hallward
Even those who’d—heard evil rumors
About his dishonorable—London lifestyle
Those who whispered—to each other
About his notorious—Whitechapel affairs
Those who sneered—behind his back
Gossiping about—rowdy foreign sailors
How curious Dorian’s—unspotted beauty
The purity of his face—rebuking critics
How his male beauty—stayed untarnished
Charming and graceful—unstained
While those around him—became sordid
Debauched and ugly—over the years
While men at the club—talking grossly
About him—grew silent in his presence
There was something—transgressive
And decadent—about Dorian’s lifestyle
Transgendering himself—metro-meandering
He seemed to be constantly—theatrical
Indeterminate—concealing and negotiating
The Importance—of Performance Art
Like Alfred Hitchcock—playing cameos
Getting off a bus—in North by Northwest
The disguised killer—in Rear Window
Waiting in the attic—in the deadly Birds
Pulling the shower curtain—aside
Janet Leigh sliced & diced—in Psycho
New identities—Jude Law playing Bosie
Appropriating Wilde—destroying him again
With instant images—coexisting alongside
Age-old loyalties—revisiting Decadence
The Importance of—Being Dorian Gray
The forever young man—amongst slobs
Attempting to predict—the future relevance
And appreciation of—Oscar Wilde the poet
Such a task is—inevitably hazardous
Since Decadence—is no longer viewed
As an Age of Transition—between Modernity
And high Victorianism—but rather a spotlight
As never before—as a conflict between
Decadence and counter-decadence
With new cultural & literary—intersections
Coming from the Internet & the Blogosphere
And the emergence—of mass marketing
Literature, Film & You Tube—into Today
Disambiguation—and Decadence
The recontextualizing—of Oscar Wilde
The electronic borrowing—of techniques
Converging as never before—into Aesthetics
“For years, Dorian Gray
could not free himself
from the influence of
this book”
—Oscar Wilde,
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Today’s Dorian Gray—the same beauty
That had so fascinated—Basil Hallward
Even those who’d—heard evil rumors
About his dishonorable—London lifestyle
Those who whispered—to each other
About his notorious—Whitechapel affairs
Those who sneered—behind his back
Gossiping about—rowdy foreign sailors
How curious Dorian’s—unspotted beauty
The purity of his face—rebuking critics
How his male beauty—stayed untarnished
Charming and graceful—unstained
While those around him—became sordid
Debauched and ugly—over the years
While men at the club—talking grossly
About him—grew silent in his presence
There was something—transgressive
And decadent—about Dorian’s lifestyle
Transgendering himself—metro-meandering
He seemed to be constantly—theatrical
Indeterminate—concealing and negotiating
The Importance—of Performance Art
Like Alfred Hitchcock—playing cameos
Getting off a bus—in North by Northwest
The disguised killer—in Rear Window
Waiting in the attic—in the deadly Birds
Pulling the shower curtain—aside
Janet Leigh sliced & diced—in Psycho
New identities—Jude Law playing Bosie
Appropriating Wilde—destroying him again
With instant images—coexisting alongside
Age-old loyalties—revisiting Decadence
The Importance of—Being Dorian Gray
The forever young man—amongst slobs
Attempting to predict—the future relevance
And appreciation of—Oscar Wilde the poet
Such a task is—inevitably hazardous
Since Decadence—is no longer viewed
As an Age of Transition—between Modernity
And high Victorianism—but rather a spotlight
As never before—as a conflict between
Decadence and counter-decadence
With new cultural & literary—intersections
Coming from the Internet & the Blogosphere
And the emergence—of mass marketing
Literature, Film & You Tube—into Today
Disambiguation—and Decadence
The recontextualizing—of Oscar Wilde
The electronic borrowing—of techniques
Converging as never before—into Aesthetics
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