View from a Suburban Window

View from a Suburban Window

Original Text
McGinley, Phyllis. Times Three. New York: Viking Press, 1960: 269.
1When I consider how my light is spent,
2    Also my sweetness, ditto all my power,
3Papering shelves or saving for the rent
4    Or prodding grapefruit while the grocers glower,
5Or dulcetly persuading to the dentist
6    The wailing young, or fitting them for shoes,
7Beset by menus and my days apprenticed
8    Forever to a grinning household muse;
9And how I might, in some tall town instead,
10    From nine to five be furthering a Career,
11    Dwelling unfettered in my single flat,
12My life my own, likewise my daily bread--
13    When I consider this, it's very clear
14    I might have done much worse. I might, at that.
Publication Start Year
1941
Publication Notes
Husbands Are Difficult; or, The House of Oliver Ames
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Form