The Monarchs Shrugged - 100 Poems - Preface on the voice of these poems

Aug 25, 2026

The Monarchs Shrugged presents a collection of 100 poems framed by a preface that interrogates voice, identity, and the psychology of admiration and contempt. The text uses sharp, satirical imagery around “Liberty” and her “prettiness” to portray how social perception can harden into prejudice, manipulation, and performative moral judgment. It contrasts surface charm with an alleged lack of soul, describing imitation, historical borrowing, and emotional emptiness. Through rhetorical excess and shifting accusations, the preface sets the tone for a layered poetic project about what truth requires.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages55

Reading Time1 h 25 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

On the voice of these poems

Liberty, prettiness, and perceived soul

The Monarchs Shrugged: 100 Poems Preface: on the voice of these poems Of course we as a people abhorred her prettiness, like a thorny music sometimes disliked in fanfares for the uncommon woman, sneered at it so, scoffed at her, had so since the beginning, and said as much of our positions, but had also, like most--nay all --fallen victim to her wiles. We as a people, sexist, misogynistic, hated her on those days when the party duped was our own suckered fascinations; in fact perhaps the only reason we began hating her at all was those first deceitful days and then the sobering days subsequent where we took wind that the sting was on. But we hated her and her prettiness most those days we watched others fall for it, hoodwinked, blinded by her diaphanous veils of phony charm. Hatred boiled. Righteousness festered into a carbuncle of all that she and her prettiness were not: a goiter swelling from the neck of the Just, and Lo, those the days we wanted to punch her square in her small, angular, perfectly symmetrical nose in anger. Christ, when that nose wrinkled in dubious delight at what was other people's less-than funny antics, how it made men and women alike tremble, buffoon themselves into stupidity: turn reckless, idiotic, giddy and dumb. It did, often. But Liberty herself was astonishingly stupid; she held no truth, other than her own innate vapidity, and could barely have declared that much or made herself known to reality in any authentic way, in other words: falter. For it's not that she lacked 'intelligence' or'wisdom'; it's not that she lacked 'history'; she had those, and too, she had the appearances of 'heart'and 'vigor'. That was the tricky part. Her guile and wiliness were part her ammo. For Liberty occasionally partied; Liberty occasionally gave the appearances of rocking-and-rolling: Liberty seemed to have IT ALL. She was pretty. Pretty this, and pretty that. But what she lacked, dear friends, what she had none whatsoever of, was soul. And if there's something about soul (Remember what the Russians said about their national identity) it's that soul insists on unity. Sure, Liberty could and would look the part of her generation’s genius, but she could never truly be an original: but a walking imitation, a meme for the nostalgia of truth from a different time. Her wisdom was not her own. Her histories were but copies of other people's European histories. Her supposedly unique intelligence was always too graceful to be based on TRUTH. Her parents were never advised to send her to a therapist when she was a child, unless in those circumstances where she grew up in an area of wealth and trophy-wifery where what the rich gave to their children in terms of character-building was their own disregard and self-involved and unfortunate series of divorces, the norm. Any of those anecdotal tidbits of personality she may have bestowed upon herself were tacked on later, in retrospect, when talking about herself at get-togethers, over a game of Scrabble, or Katan, at dinner parties, having looked at the media and everybody's reaction to people focused on there, and devised her character that way. For She and her prettiness could create nothing, except, of course, more prettiness. True she was a frozen in her being and never threw chairs or coffeepots, broke out it awkward screams, laughter, or tears when no one was looking: if she did do so, it was only because it knew those eyes were watching it, and she was displaying, if not the proper hallucinatory emotion to be had, then one that suggested depth and complexity of her character, her legacy and fame, showing only the signs and symptoms of neurosis, without ever sinking into the skin-scraping truth thereof, anything to evade from the world knowing her actual void. As a teen, if she took drugs, she took them when it was popular to do so, in the correct order: i. e. first glue, then Smirnoff ice, then weed, and so on and so on, etc. She listened to TLC when it was popular

FAQs

What is the focus of the preface in The Monarchs Shrugged?

The preface centers on the voice of the poems, using satire and rhetorical framing to discuss how Liberty is perceived and judged.

How does the text portray “Liberty” and “prettiness”?

It portrays Liberty’s prettiness as socially persuasive yet spiritually hollow, emphasizing performance, imitation, and borrowed histories rather than original truth.

What tension does the preface highlight about hatred and admiration?

It suggests that hatred can stem from fascination, as observers condemn what others fall for, while still remaining trapped in the same emotional cycle of judgment.

Aug 25, 2026

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