Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Duh!


Bricks and Straw
   ~by Franklin Pierce Adams 

My desk is cleared of the litter of ages;
Before me glitter the fair white pages;
My fountain pen is clean and filled,
And the noise of the office has long been stilled.
Roget’s Thesaurus is at my hand,
And I’m ready to do some work that’s grand,
Dignified, eminent, great, momentous,
Memorable, worthy of note, portentous,
Beautiful, paramount, vital, prime,
Stirring, eventful, august, sublime.
For this is the way, I have read and heard,
That authors look for the fitting word.
All of the proud ingredients mine
To build, like Marlowe, the mighty line.
But never a line from my new-filled pen
That couldn’t be done by a child of ten.
Oh, how did Shelley and how did Keats
Weave magic words on the fair white sheets
Under conditions that, were they mine,
I couldn’t bear? And I’d just resign.
Yet Milton wrote passable literature
Under conditions I couldn’t endure.
Coleridge and Chatterton did their stuff
Over a road that I’d christen rough.
Wordsworth and—soft!—could it be that they
Waited until they had something to say?


.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice :0)

Sage Ravenwood said...

Adore this poem. I've long believed forcing the muse, made her moody and reticent and not likely to please. (Hugs)Indigo

Erika C. said...

I love this! Yes, it is hard to live up to the writers I admire and to not make excuses, when it is obvious that many of them did so much more within all sorts of limitations.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

love,
Erika

Lydia said...

*****ETERNALLY DISTRACTED*****Thank you for becoming my #146! You are great. :)

Indigo~ This poem should be introduced at the beginning of writing classes. :)

Erika~ My pleasure, of course. I hadn't been there for awhile and will see you soon. xo

Unknown said...

beautiful!i begin to feel like doing something grand myself!

Lydia said...

shasha~ That's great! :)

Beth Niquette said...

Aaaah, so lovely!

Lydia said...

Beth~ :) :) :)

Hattie said...

Oh I know this one. No matter how hard I try to write a poem it always comes out as doggerel.

Lydia said...

Hattie~ Darnit, I used to write mediocre-fair poetry and had two decent ones published. But that was decades ago. Doggerel is my specialty too.

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