George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The Master Slave Trope

We shall enter into dispute one way or another,
in this we are not unlike master and slave –
my old friend, John Duffy knows this to be true,
though neither man would admit to mastery
over or slavery to any other living soul.

However, two men are not whole classes
unto themselves, to rule over or to be ruled,
they are poets, individual poets, in this instance
that are capable of self-consciousness
but not self-realisation, both men struggle for freedom.

In this we are not unlike master and slave –
the subjugation, starvation and exploitation
(in which neither man plays a part on this earth)
plays its part in our lives, if only to leave us
disputing once more, the higher unity both men seek.

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