Lines from a Plutocratic Poetaster to a Ditch-digger
Lines from a Plutocratic Poetaster to a Ditch-digger
Original Text
Franklin P. Adams, Weights and Measures (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page, 1917): 134-35. LE A2121w Robarts Library
2 As I passed you in my car,
3I could sense your muffled curse on
4 It and me and my cigar;
5And though mute your malediction,
6 I could feel it on my head,
7As in countless works of fiction
8 I have read.
9Envy of mine obvious leisure
10 Seemed to green your glittering eye;
11Hate for mine apparent pleasure
12 Filled you as I motored by.
13You who had to dig for three, four
14 Hours in that unpleasant ditch,
15Loathed, despised, and hated me for
16 Being rich.
17And you cursed me into Hades
18 As you envied me that ride
19With the loveliest of ladies
21And your wish, or your idea,
22 Was to hurl us off some cliff.
23I could see that you thought me a
24 Lucky stiff.
25If you came to the decision,
26 As my car you mutely cussed,
27That allottment and division
28 Are indecently unjust --
29Labouring man, however came you
30 Thus to think the world awry,
31I should be the last to blame you ...
32 So do I.
Notes
1] Poetaster: bad poet. Back to Line
20] dexter: right. Back to Line
24] stiff: contemptible guy. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003
Rhyme
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