About five months ago I wrote a brief, of sorts, on speed. (Let me rephrase: I wrote about the virtues of speed, in short fiction and film.) I promised, at the post’s close, to return to the topic, and to look at “poems that blaze their way to the finish line” — but then spring turned to summer, and the long days got away from me. Now I’m in the process of moving (slowly, haphazardly), which means I need to pack up my books, including the dozen or so volumes I’d pulled for this post. Plus, today is Napoleon’s birthday! (He was born in 1769, on the island of Corsica.) I’m not sure whether the French general was fast, but he was certainly short — and when it comes to the poems that follow, I’m using “fast” and “short” somewhat interchangeably. (To be sure, a long poem may move quickly, and some short poems take forever to get to line six — but the ones I’ve chosen are fast and short.) Enough, though, with the prelude. It’s the middle of August; it’s horribly hot. Here, then, are some quick, refreshing lifts:
Upon Julia’s Clothes
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes!Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
— O how that glittering taketh me!– Robert Herrick (c. 1648)
***
Eternity
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.– William Blake (c. 1793)
***
[To make a prairie]
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.– Emily Dickinson (date unknown; 1860s or 1870s?)
***
“There’s been an accident,” they said,
“Your servant’s cut in half; he’s dead!”
“Indeed!” said Mr. Jones, “and please,
Send me the half that’s got my keys.”– Harry Graham (from Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes, 1899)
***
To a Captious Critic
Dear critic, who my lightness so deplores,
Would I might study to be prince of bores,
Right wisely would I rule that dull estate —
But sir, I may not, till you abdicate.– Paul Laurence Dunbar (from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1913)
***
Prophetic Soul
Because your eyes are slant and slow,
Because your hair is sweet to touch,
My heart is high again; but oh,
I doubt if this will get me much.– Dorothy Parker (from The Collected Poetry of Dorothy Parker, The Modern Library, 1936)
***
The Termite
Some primal termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good,
And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today.– Ogden Nash (from The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash, Pocket Books, 1962)
***
Emily Dickinson
Higgledy-piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Liked to use dashes
Instead of full stops.Nowadays, faced with such
Idiosyncrasy,
Critics and editors
Send for the cops.– Wendy Cope (from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, Faber and Faber, 1986)
***
The Lover Writes a One-Word Poem
You!
– Gavin Ewart (from The Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems, ed. Wendy Cope, Faber and Faber, 1998)
***
Famous Poems Abbreviated
(1)
Of man’s first disobedience and its fruit
Scripture has told. No need to follow suit.– X. J. Kennedy (from Peeping Tom’s Cabin: Comic Verse 1928-2008, BOA Editions, 2007)
***
Portrait of My Grandfather as Rhett Butler
Frankly, my dear,
I don’t give a darn.– B. T. Shaw (from This Dirty Little Heart, Eastern Washington UP, 2008)
***
The Judeo-Christian Tradition
Of course they’d need an
Omnipotent god. Look whom
He’d have to pardon.– Richard Kenney (from The One-Strand River, Knopf, 2008)
***
After Archilochos
All of these horses are good,
and these horses, too,
and the ones you’re hiding behind the wall,
I’ll take those as well.– Jason Whitmarsh (from Tomorrow’s Living Room, Utah State UP, 2009)
