Exotic dancers on the Paris stage
Cause interest, but there is no outrage
Dispensing, tauntingly, with all their gear
Yells of "More!" ring out amidst the cheers
Some say that exploitation is the game
It seems the girls enjoy it, just the same
A harmless titillation? It's your call
Some think the ladies headed for a fall
These acts, so sinful, some will say
Seem very tame by standards of today
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Author Notes
Image: CC0 licence - no attribution required.
Today's word: ecdysiast (n.) a striptease artiste.
This day (13th March) in 1898 saw a dancer named Blanche Cavelli perform what is thought to be the world's first confirmed public striptease on stage in a Paris nightclub.
* I'm not a French speaker, but I imagine the French audiences might have been calling out "plus" or "encore", rather than more. But to avoid confusion, I've kept the English version of the word.
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Thanks for reading.
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