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The Snake Oil Salesman to His Country is a creative writing performance piece created in protest of Eurocentric reading material of an SFUSD Literature course. This piece was read allowed by Ella Rochelle-Lawton to an audience of students in the presence of a teacher whose voting practices and expressed politics were harmful to the diversity of George Washington High School's community. The piece was then copied and distributed for literary analysis and artistic reflection.  

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

By Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love, 

And we will all the pleasures prove, 

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, 

Woods, or steepy mountain yields. 

 

And we will sit upon the Rocks, 

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, 

By shallow Rivers to whose falls 

Melodious birds sing Madrigals. 

 

And I will make thee beds of Roses 

And a thousand fragrant posies, 

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle; 

 

A gown made of the finest wool 

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull; 

Fair lined slippers for the cold, 

With buckles of the purest gold; 

 

A belt of straw and Ivy buds, 

With Coral clasps and Amber studs: 

And if these pleasures may thee move, 

Come live with me, and be my love. 

 

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing 

For thy delight each May-morning: 

If these delights thy mind may move, 

Then live with me, and be my love.



 

The Snake Oil Salesman to His Country

 

Come live with me in the house of white

Bring thy clubs and aim to the right. 

Keep in the fairway and out of the rough.

Who’d’ve thought this job could be so tough!

 

I will build thee a wall of brick

And act like a total prick. 

And we will sit upon said wall

And watch as Obama Care falls. 

 

And I will make thee arms available to all- 

Those with great minds and those with small.

So that when King George comes to call

I shall shoot him down with no thought at all.

 

Thou shall listen to melodious birds tweet.

As those with no means struggle to eat.

As I sit on my loo of gold

And cut Medicare benefits for those who are old.

 

For the masses, thy protest the very best.

My office will always be out of reach.

Perhaps your only answer is to impeach.

Come live with me in the house of white. 

Bring thy clubs and aim to the right.

 

End tweet.



 

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