American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse
Distinguished poet and critic John Hollander offers, for the first time ever, a buoyant guided tour of American light verse-a tradition he delightfully pursues from Ambrose Bierce's sardonic The Devil's Dictionary quatrains to the latter-day comic inventions of Edward Gorey, Kenneth Koch, and James Merrill. Along the way, American Wits gathers a rich harvest of couplets, clerihews, epigrams, parodies, burlesques, and other forms of fractured verse. The varied and often surprising list of...
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Distinguished poet and critic John Hollander offers, for the first time ever, a buoyant guided tour of American light verse-a tradition he delightfully pursues from Ambrose Bierce's sardonic The Devil's Dictionary quatrains to the latter-day comic inventions of Edward Gorey, Kenneth Koch, and James Merrill. Along the way, American Wits gathers a rich harvest of couplets, clerihews, epigrams, parodies, burlesques, and other forms of fractured verse. The varied and often surprising list of contributors includes Edwin Arlington Robinson, Don Marquis, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Morley, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ogden Nash, Phyllis McGinley, and Anthony Hecht.
IntroductionCorporal1Elegy1Two Men2A Mighty Runner3Miniver Cheevy3Famous Baths and Bathers5Elegy7Philadelphia7Seattle9Everything In Its Place10On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness11The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet12The Harmonious Heedlessness of Little Boy Blue13The Wrights' Biplane16In Dives' Dive16In a Poem16The song of mehitabel17Archy at the zoo20from mehitabel's extensive past22Ballade of the under side24Factory Windows Are Always Broken27A Colloquial Reply: To Any Newsboy27Niagara28Kalamazoo30Us Potes33Ballade of Schopenhauer's Philosophy34The Rich Man35To a Thesaurus35"Lines Where Beauty Lingers"37An Immorality39Ancient Music39The Naming of Cats41Macavity: The Mystery Cat42Tannhauser45Carmen48Rigoletto50Pelleas and Melisande53Survey of Literature56An Unusual Combination in Verses of This Character58from The Notebook of a Schnook61from Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing63from Songs about Life and Brighter Things Yet; A Survey of the Entire Earthly Panorama, Animal, Vegetable and Mineral, with Appropriate Comment by the Author, of a Philosophic, Whimsical, Humorous or Poetic Nature - a Truly Remarkable Undertaking65The Sexes67Elegy Written in a Country Coal-Bin68"A Pre-Raphaelite"69Upper family70First Fig72Second Fig72Thusday72Grown-Up73Ozymandias Revisited74Eschatology74We Have Been Here Before75"A joker who haunts Monticello"76Flowers of Rhetoric76Ah, To Be In ...77Portrait of the Artist79Chant for Dark Hours79Unfortunate Coincidence81Comment81Words of Comfort to be Scratched on a Mirror81News Item81Song of One of the Girls82Fighting Words82Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom83Experience84Neigher Bloody Nor Bowed84Bohemia84Story85Frustration85Resume86One Perfect Rose86Ballade at Thirty-Five87Healed88Pour Prendre Conge89Coda90The Danger of Writing Defiant Verse90The Actress91"The way to hump a cow"92Obit on Parnassus94Sportif96History of Education97Convalescence97Week End Bid I99Week End Bid II99Lion100Marble-Top102I Paint What I See102Village Revisited105Old Story106Aphrodite Metropolis (III)106Ballad of the Salvation Army107Death and Transfiguration of Fourteenth Street108Cultural Notes109Dirge111Spring Comes to Murray Hill113Watchman, What of the First First Lady?114Please Pass the Biscuit115The Termite116The Panther117A Beginner's Guide to the Ocean117Kind of an Ode to Duty118No Wonder Our Fathers Died119A Necessary Dirge121The Private Dining Room122What's in a Name? Some Letter I Always Forget124Arthur125The Song of Songs125View from a Suburban Window128Trinity Place128Why, Some of My Best Friends Are Women129Evening Musicale131Blues for a Melodeon132New England Pilgrimage133The Day After Sunday137Mr. Rockefeller's Hat139To Helen140The Princess and the Pea140Ballade of Poetic Material141Under Which Lyre143from Academic Graffiti: "My first name, Wystan"150John Milton150Oscar Wilde150Parable150from Uncoupled Couplets151The Dover Bitch152Handicap152It Never Rains ...154Firmness154From the Grove Press155Down There on a Visit155"From the bathing machine came a din"156"The Proctor buys a pupil ices"156Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams157La Ville de Nice158Above All That?159Neo-Classic159Tomorrows160Japanese Beetles162Said ("J. Alfred Prufrock to")166Said ("Agatha Christie to")166Said ("Dame Edith Evans to")167Said ("J. Edgar Hoover to")167High Renaissance168Working Habits168Boston169On the Antiquity of Warfare170Sources and Acknowledgments175Notes181Index of Poets, Titles, and First Lines186
