Snap (from hearsay and BM booklet)
The Warren Cup
Underground for centuries, this
Roman silver cup, now proudly displayed
at the British Museum, lurked in decades
of half-light after its disinterment,
so shocking were the scenes portrayed.
Two pairs of male lovers in low reliefı:
handsome youth lowers his bare behind
on handsome bearded manıs lap (a slave
watches them through an open door);
youth and boy genitally entwined.
Such gentle male elegance, so still!
The cup? to drink from at symposia:
cultured conversation, while feasting
full-length on two-person couches
as in Plato, or The Satyricon.
The fall of Oscar Wilde in ıninety-five
pushed all these scenes back underground.
Ned Warren, buying quietly from some dealer,
dreamed of a future of ideal male couples.
His Boston millions he spread around
on rare antiquities (and Rodinıs
Kissı, male genitals carved fully more
scandal); manly retreats at his shrine
of friendshipı, Lewes House, the cup their
Holy Grailı. In his study called Thebes
(Oh the Sacred Bandı of Theban soldiers!)
over the stable for his Arab stallions,
he wrote his 'Defence of Uranian Love',
the cup supreme in his mine of treasureı.
Bequeathed to his faithful secretary,
judged pornographic by U.S. officials,
itıs re-wrapped, re-sealed and refused entry.
But Europe? Surely the cupıs rare artistry
destined it to grace a great museum?
They could have had it cheap, the BM,
if the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Chairman of Trustees, hadnıt set the tone.
Homophobia is slow, slow to wane.
The cupıs in private hands two generations;
in Basel mid-1980s is shown,
and then the New York Metropolitan!
At length, changing collectorsı hands again,
itıs time! the cup at staggering expense
is finally acquired for the nationı.
Now schoolgirls pause before it briefly,
yawning: Gay men fucking, so what?
Why not? It needs no explanation.
Wednesday 30 January 2008
Max Richards
Doncaster, Victoria
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