Beside my chaste and downy cot
There stands a goodly number
Of stately tomes of prose and pomes
To lull the guest to slumber.
The verse of T. S. Eliot,
A copy of "Ulysses,"
As though to say "No place you'll stay
So cultured is as this is."
The works (in French) of Baudelaire,
And Keats "Epipsychidion"
And next to it The Holy Writ
Purloined, I fear, from Gideon.
A goodly and narcotic list
Of literary glories,
While down below my host, I know,
Is reading Snappy Stories.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Scrutable Poetry Corner: "Guestroom Books" by Newman Levy
"Guestroom Books" by Newman Levy (The New Yorker, April 12, 1930).
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2 comments:
This is wonderful... and, I think, remains true. Though I sense my hosts are actually watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, while I struggle through Baudelaire (in French).
Or they may even be watching some Ultimate Fighting special, while you're at home watching "Wild Strawberries."
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