Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Further poems about authors

Many of you were kind enough to say nice things about my previous little poems about authors, and so, in this hot weather, I have turned my attention to writing a few more... I hope you enjoy them!

Not relevant... but nice.

A reductive reading of Dorothy Parker
Poems, journalism, more -
Yet you are remembered for
Advising, to the finer sex,
A total abstinence from specs.

 Gentlemen
Men apparently declare
Their love based on a woman's hair.
That is all they need, to choose
(according to Anita Loos.)

Reassurance
You're my favourite of the three
And yet you have the faintest fame.
To generations you will be:
'Charlotte, Emily, whatshername'.

My Problem With Alfred
Reading Dead White Men is fun,
Unless, of course, it's Tennyson.
Among his literary powers
Is not included a respect for line length or stresses or anything so long as he can mention flowers.

Posted by StuckInABook at 23:05

21 comments:

  1. samara9 July 2013 at 23:31

    Ah - you have me chortling with joy, especially with those last 2 :)

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  2. LMR9 July 2013 at 23:57

    Ah, I admit I had a momentary difficulty remembering whatshername... Anne?

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  3. Susan in TX10 July 2013 at 02:58

    Alfred is my fav! Followed closely by Reassurance. (I haven't read any of the first two to get the depth, but I do appreciate the poems.) Thank you for the smile today.

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:14

      Thank you Susan :)
      The first is based on Dorothy Parker's famous saying "Men don't make passes / At girls who wear glasses" - and the second is in honour of the author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

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  4. EllenBinNYC10 July 2013 at 04:49

    Laughing out loud at the Tennyson. So funny! It reminds me of an incident in the read-long -ago The Eyre Affair when a minor character is trapped inside Wordsworth's Daffodils. She is heard to yell something along the lines of "Help, help! Get me out of here. It's so boring" Yes, The Eyre Affair is a book in which people. can go in and out of works of literature. Imagine the possibilities!

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:15

      I keep meaning to read The Eyre Affair, I borrowed it from a friends years and years ago!

      My first ever tutorial at Oxford, I talked about how poorly I thought Tennyson wrote... to, it turned out, a leading Tennyson scholar. Oops.

      Thank you for your lovely comment!

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  5. Annabel (gaskella)10 July 2013 at 08:48

    More please!

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:15

      I do find them very fun to write, so I shall definitely work on more :)

      Delete
  6. stujallen10 July 2013 at 17:31

    very good Simon ,all the best stu

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  7. Anonymous10 July 2013 at 18:47

    Fab Simon - loved these!

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  8. Peacocks and Sunflowers11 July 2013 at 08:54

    Haha thank you Simon, these are great. My favourite is the Tennyson one too, as though I needed to choose. And Ellen, I will have to read The Eyre Affair! Friends and I once memorized Daffodils by assigning actions to every line. Fortunately no video evidence exists...

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:16

      Haha! Nice job. Have you seen the squirrel rapping Daffodils, for the Cumbria tourist board, or the Wordsworth Trust, or something. It's worth a watch...

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  9. Anonymous11 July 2013 at 10:45

    Ho ho! Especially Alfred. Great stuff.

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:17

      Thanks Erica! I thought I'd get lots of outraged Tennysonians, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

      Delete
  10. Agnieszka11 July 2013 at 14:08

    These are fabulous Simon. You should definitely keep writing. Then you should draw a sketch about each author to go with the poem :) I think your Dostoyevsky and twitter cartoon would go nicely with the poem about Crime and Punishment. I believe your great, witty poems together with your wonderful sketches would make a brilliant book/album.

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    1. StuckInABook13 July 2013 at 11:17

      That's so nice, Agnieszka! I might make something like that for myself one day, when I've written/drawn enough.

      Delete
  11. Melwyk21 July 2013 at 19:45

    Very clever! Enjoyed all of these greatly :)

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  12. Nose_in_a_book29 July 2013 at 22:08

    Brilliant! All made me smile and laugh. Looking forward to more of them!

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I've now moved to www.stuckinabook.com, and all my old posts are over there too - do come and say hello :)

I probably won't see your comment here, I'm afraid, but all my archive posts can also be found at www.stuckinabook.com.

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