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Anne Carson's The Beauty of the Husband is a unique work of poetry, a sustained emotional narrative and a layered performance in language; the book is subtitled "a fictional essay in 29 tangos." Tango number XIX is found below.






A Conversation Between Equals than Which Nothing is More Difficult to Achieve in This World Habeas Corpus'd as (Keats Says) We Are Out of All Wonder Curiosity and Fear

Coward.
I know.
Betrayer.
Yes.
Opportunist.
I can see why you would think that.
Slave.
Go on.
Faithless lecherous child.
Okay.
Liar.
What can I say.
Liar.
But.
Liar.
But please.
Destroyer liar sadist fake.
Please.
Please what.
Save me.
Who else do you say that to.
No one.
No one he says.
Have courage.
You fool.
Oh my love.
Stop.
Listen I only wanted one thing to be worthy of you.
Are you mad.
No yes it doesn't matter.
You live a counterfeit life.
Yes yes but for you.
Me.
These are my trophies my campaigns my honors I lay them before you.
The women.
Yes.
The lying.
Yes.
The shame.
No there is no shame.
The shame I feel.
There is no shame except in retreat.
Ah.
And I never retreat.
I guess not.
Be my ally.
What are we talking about now.
If you wish not to go on with this I'll stop.
Don't stop.
I've said everything before.
What's wrong with us.
Fog of war.
Why are we at war.
Because I don't want to give up.
Your dreams are a mess.
They are my masterpiece.
God help us then.
God has no place in war and the folly of it well one has only to persevere in folly and
the world will soon enough call it success.
No it's not going to clear up is it or make sense or come out into the open somewhere
this welter of disorder and pain is our life.
Yes.
Your so-called freedom.
Our so-called love.





If you are in the Washington, D.C. area this evening, please stop by Politics & Prose bookstore for a wonderful evening of poetry, conversation—and wine! Readers will include Knopf poets Mark Strand, Mary Jo Salter, and Sarah Arvio. Free and open to the public. Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC Wednesday, April 16, 7:00pm.

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Excerpt from The BEAUTY OF THE HUSBAND. Copyright © 2001 by Anne Carson. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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