Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)
Radiolatry
1 The worst of all idolators
2 Are zealous radiolaters
3Who wreck the peace of erstwhile happy homes
4 With drool of variometers,
5 Detectors, galvanometers,
6Antennae, switches, batteries and ohms.
7 Their eyes devoutly glistening,
8 They'll sit for ages listening
9With clumsy rubber muffs upon their ears,
10 And hail the shrieking mordancies
11 Of far-away discordancies
12As though they were the music of the spheres.
13 They'll stand for prosy summaries
14 And monologues and mummeries
15Of folks you couldn't wheedle them to see,
16 The rant of revolutionists
17 And awful elocutionists,
18Because they come from Newark, XYZ.
19 They'll take the driest serial
20 So long as it's aërial;
21They'll take the saddest sentimental gush
22 The ambient may squeak to them;
23 But if you dare to speak to them
24The only sound you get from them is, "Shush!"
25 In Nome or sweet Lafcadio
26 There's no escape from Radio!
27Then, since you cannot dodge the atmosphere,
28 My songs shall cheer or trouble you
30Because, at least, I'd rather talk than hear!
EPILOGUE
(With the kind assistance of Mr. Longfellow.)
31 I breathed a song into the air;
32 That little song of beauty rare
33 Is flying still, for all I know,
34 Around the world by Radio.
Notes
2] radiolaters: invented term.
4] variometers: what tunes the radio to a frequency.
5] galvanometers: device for measuring the direction and intensity of an electrical current.
6] ohms: unit measuring electrical resistance.
10] mordancies: sharp, biting (sounds).
12] music of the spheres: in Ptolomaic astronomy, the planets (or fixed stars) were thought to make music, in worshipping God, by their circular motions.
25] Nome: in Alaska. Lafcadio: an invented placename, after Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), a westerner who taught in Japan and wrote about the country.
29] PKW: a type of radio aerial, here used for the letters that identify a radio station.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text:
Publication date note: Guiterman, Arthur, The Light Guitar (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1923): 139-140.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition:
Recent editing: 1:2004/6/21
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