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The Best Flog A Dead Horse Poems

Details | Flog A Dead Horse Poem |

LIFE'S A CLICHE

Every journey starts with a single step[1]
Infused with vigour, strength and pep

Impatiently yearning for acceptance
Willingly to sacrifice and do penance[2]

There is nothing new under the sun[3]
You should learn to walk, before you run

No man ever steps in the same river twice[4]
Wisdom comes at an exuberant price

Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear[5]
No man can judge wisely, if ruled by fear

Fall seven times and stand up eight[6]
Resist temptation to be always right

Life’s  a cold case: flogging a dead horse[7]
More often than not, you’re blown off course

The final stance is what is recalled[8]
Elegy or Epigram: exit stalled

© 11 August 2014  Suzette  Richards

Sponsor	nette onclaud
Contest Name	WANDERLUST 
 




GLOSSARY

[1] "Every journey starts with a single step." – Confucius

[2] “Life isn’t a payment for your so-called sins. It’s more a learning thing.” The 
Afterlife of Billy fingers, by Annie Kagan

[3] Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 - “There Is Nothing New Under The Sun”
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The 
sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

[4] Heraclitus of Ephesus:  “ No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's 
not the same river and he's not the same man.”

[5] Lao Tzu — “Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.”

[6] Fall seven times and stand up eight – Japanese proverb
Proverbs 24:16:-  “... for though the righteous fall seven times ...”

Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will ... 
man shall fall seven times and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down 
into evil. .... From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch 
you.

[7]The original meaning of 'a dead horse', apart from the literal 'horse that has 
fallen off its perch', was a reference to work for which a person had been paid 
in advance (and possibly had already spent the proceeds). This dates from the 
17th century and is referred to in Richard Brome's play The Antipodes, first 
performed in 1638 and printed in 1640:

He cur'd a country gentleman that fell mad
For spending of his land before he sold it;
That is, 'twas sold to pay his debts - all went
That way for a dead horse, as one would say!

Our present meaning, in the phrase 'flog a dead horse', is quite different. This 
is a reference to something that is entirely pointless and cannot result in any 
productive end. The phrase, which is also sometimes expressed as 'beating a 
dead horse', appeared in print in 1859, in the report of a UK parliamentary 
debate involving Francis Wemyss-Charteris Douglas, eighth earl of Wemyss 
and sixth earl of March - who was better known as Lord Elcho. It was reported 
in Hansard's parliamentary debates, Volume 153. 1859:

If the hon. Member for Birmingham [John Bright] had been present, he 
would have asked the hon. Gentleman [Lord Elcho] whether he was satisfied 
with the results of his winter campaign. It was notorious that he was not, and 
a saying was attributed to him that he found he was "flogging a dead horse."


Whether Lord Elcho was the originator of the phrase, we can't tell, but no 
earlier use of it in print has yet come to light.

[8] Extract from the poem, Time, by Suzette Richards

it is not
the first impression
that counts 
it is the final thought we leave with others
like lingering dusk
after our sun had set on this mortal world

Details | Flog A Dead Horse Poem |

Flogged a Dead Horse

Flogged a Dead Horse The Dream

It felt no pain
pain I felt
flogging works like that
So I sat
upside down
in Australia

Started to fall asleep
cider I was in, knee deep
A kangaroo woke me up
It felt no pain
as she flogged a dead man
flogging works like that.

Flog a Dead Horse The Reality

and feel its pain
that's how it works

I sit
upside down
in Australia
knee deep in cider
while a kangaroo flogs me

it doesn't feel my pain
I'm a dead man
that's how it works