The Passionate Suburbanite To His Love

The Passionate Suburbanite To His Love

2  How vain in the City to dwell
4  And lilacs adorn New Rochelle!
5White Plains is the Garden of Allah
6  And Pelham's the Pearl of the Sea;
7There's bliss in the name of Valhalla --
8  Oh, fly to the Suburbs with me!
9Then won't you commute on my family ticket?
10To Westchester County we'll flee.
11  Delightful Westchester,
12  What place is sequester!
13Oh, won't you commute, Love, with me?
14I'll pluck you the earliest crocus
16We'll sport on the meads of Hohokus,
17  We'll ramble through Cultured Montclair;
18We'll rest in Exclusive Tuxedo,
20And still shall I carol my credo,
21  "The Suburbs are Paradise Found."
22Then won't you commute on my family ticket?
23Perhaps you prefer New Jersee;
24  For who could grow weary
25  Of life on the Erie!
26Then won't you commute, Love, with me?
27The Isle 'twixt the Sound and the Ocean --
28  Ah, has it no Message for you?
29I cannot but think with emotion
32  Of Little Neck, Great Neck, and Quogue
33And all of the other Clam Stations
34  Including Speonk and Patchogue.
35Then come take a trip on my family ticket
36Where Long Island breezes blow free.
37  To live on the Subway
39Then fly to the Suburbs with me!

Notes

1] Commute with me, my Love, and be merry: a parody of Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" Back to Line
3] Dobbs' Ferry: all these places are in Westchester County, north of New York City. Back to Line
15] Orange: places in New Jersey. Back to Line
19] Nutley: places in New Jersey. Back to Line
30] Flushing: communities in the vicinity of Queen's, New York. Back to Line
31] Bayshore: towns in Long Island, east of New York. Back to Line
38] dub: silly, commonplace. Back to Line
Publication Notes
Guiterman, Arthur, The Laughing Muse (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1915): 131-132.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire