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The Pantomime "Super" To His Mask

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Vast empty shell!     Impertinent, preposterous abortion!     With vacant stare,     And ragged hair,     And every feature out of all proportion!     Embodiment of echoing inanity!     Excellent type of simpering insanity!     Unwieldy, clumsy nightmare of humanity!     I ring thy knell!     To-night thou diest,     Beast that destroy'st my heaven-born identity!     Nine weeks of nights,     Before the lights,     Swamped in thine own preposterous nonentity,     I've been ill-treated, cursed, and thrashed diurnally,     Credited for the smile you wear externally     I feel disposed to smash thy face, infernally,     As there thou liest!     I've been thy brain:     I'VE been the brain that lit thy dull concavity!     The human race     Invest MY face     With thine expression of unchecked depravity,     Invested with a ghastly reciprocity,     I'VE been responsible for thy monstrosity,     I, for thy wanton, blundering ferocity     But not again!     'T is time to toll     Thy knell, and that of follies pantomimical:     A nine weeks' run,     And thou hast done     All thou canst do to make thyself inimical.     Adieu, embodiment of all inanity!     Excellent type of simpering insanity!     Unwieldy, clumsy nightmare of humanity!     Freed is thy soul!     (The Mask respondeth.)     Oh! master mine,     Look thou within thee, ere again ill-using me.     Art thou aware     Of nothing there     Which might abuse thee, as thou art abusing me?     A brain that mourns THINE unredeemed rascality?     A soul that weeps at THY threadbare morality?     Both grieving that THEIR individuality     Is merged in thine?

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"Vast empty shell!..."

"The Pantomime "Super" To His Mask" is a quintessential example of William Schwenck Gilbert's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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"When I was a lad I served a term     As office boy..."

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