My thanks to Tom Richards for suggesting today's poem:
(Poem #1482) The Scholars Bald heads, forgetful of their sins, Old, learned, respectable bald heads Edit and annotate the lines That young men, tossing on their beds, Rhymed out in love's despair To flatter beauty's ignorant ear. All shuffle there, all cough in ink; All wear the carpet with their shoes; All think what other people think; All know the man their neighbour knows. Lord, what would they say Did their Catullus walk their way? |
In "Letter From Lesbia" (Minstrels Poem #1467), Dorothy Parker pokes gentle fun at the self-absorption of the poet. But if a poet is self-absorbed and (hence) uninteresting, what does that make the critic who spends his days analyzing his poems? thomas. PS. Tom writes that he found this poem in "Poem for the Day: 366 poems, old and new, worth learning by heart", ed. Nicholas Albery; he further comments that "it's only trumped by The Rattle Bag out of the poetry anthologies I've read". With that strong a recommendation I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for it; thanks again, Tom! [Minstrels Links] The Catullus theme: Poem #1463, Song Five -- Gaius Valerius Catullus Poem #1464, From Catullus 5 -- Sir Walter Raleigh Poem #1465, Come, My Celia -- Ben Jonson Poem #1466, My Sweetest Lesbia -- Thomas Campion Poem #1467, From A Letter From Lesbia -- Dorothy Parker [Administrivia] Earlier in the day you may have received a suspicious email titled "Notify about using the e-mail account", or some such phrase. This was a fake, sent by someone (or something) who had forged Sitaram's email address. Fortunately, we've configured our list-serve to strip out all attachments, which means that no harm was done, and that you, Gentle Reader, needn't worry about viruses and the like.
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