On the Importance of Being Earnest
"Gentle Jane was as good as gold,"
To borrow a line from Mr. Gilbert;
She hated War with a hate untold,
She was a pacifistic filbert.
If you said "Perhaps"--she'd leave the hall.
You couldn't argue with her at all.
"Teasing Tom was a very bad boy,"
(Pardon my love for a good quotation).
To talk of war was his only joy,
And his single purpose was preparation.
* * * * *
And what both of these children had to say
I never knew, for I ran away.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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Old Environment
I used to think that this environ-
Ment talk was all a lot of guff;
Place mattered not with Keats and Byron
Stuff.
If I have thoughts that need disclosing,
Bright be the day or hung with gloom,
I'll write in Heaven or the composing-
Room.
Times are when with my nerves a-tingle,
Joyous and bright the songs I sing;
Though, gay, I can't dope out a single
Thing.
And yet, by way of illustration,
The gods my graying head annoint . . .
I wrote this piece at Inspiration
point.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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The Comfort of Obscurity
INSPIRED BY READING MR. KIPLING'S POEMS AS
PRINTED IN THE NEW YORK PAPERS
Though earnest and industrious,
I still am unillustrious;
No papers empty purses
Printing verses
Such as mine.
No lack of fame is chronicker
Than that about my monicker;
My verse is never cabled
At a fabled
Rate per line.
Still though the Halls
Of Literature are closed
To me a bard obscure I
Have a consolation The
Copyreaders crude and rough
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poem by Franklin P. Adams
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Oh Man!
Man hath harnessed the lightning;
Man hath soared to the skies;
Mountain and hill are clay to his will;
Skillful he is, and wise.
Sea to sea hath he wedded,
Canceled the chasm of space,
Given defeat to cold and heat;
Splendour is his, and grace.
His are the topless turrets;
His are the plumbless pits;
Earth is slave to his architrave,
Heaven is thrall to his wits.
And so in the golden future,
He who hath dulled the storm
(As said above) may make a glove
That'll keep my fingers warm.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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Unshackled Thoughts on Chivalry, Romance, Adventure, Etc.
Yesterday afternoon, while I was walking on Worth Street,
A gust of wind blew my hat off.
I swore, petulantly, but somewhat noisily.
A young woman had been near, walking behind me;
She must have heard me, I thought.
And I was ashamed, and embarrassedly sorry.
So I said to her: "If you heard me, I beg your pardon."
But she gave me a frightened look
And ran across the street,
Seeking a policeman.
So I thought, Why waste five hours trying to versify the incident?
Verse libre would serve her right.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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Lines Written on the Sunny Side of Frankfort Street
Sporting with Amaryllis in the shade,
(I credit Milton in parenthesis),
Among the speculations that she made
Was this:
"When"--these her very words--"when you return,
A slave to duty's harsh commanding call,
Will you, I wonder, ever sigh and yearn
At all?"
Doubt, honest doubt, sat then upon my brow.
(Emotion is a thing I do not plan).
I could not fairly answer then, but now
I can.
Yes, Amaryllis, I can tell you this,
Can answer publicly and unafraid:
You haven't any notion how I miss
The shade.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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How
How can I work when you play the piano,
Feminine person above?
How can I think, with your ceaseless soprano
Singing: 'Ah, Love-'?
How can I dream of a subject aesthetic,
Far from the purlieus of prose?
How, with the call of the peripatetic
'High! High cash clo'es!'?
How can I write when the children are crying?
How can I poetize-how?
How can I help imper_fect_ versifying?
(There is some now.)
How can I bathe in the thought-waves of
beauty?
How, with my nerves on the slant,
Can I perform my poetical duty?
Frankly, I can't.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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The Jazzy Bard
Labor is a thing I do not like;
Workin's makes me want to go on strike;
Sittin' in an office on a sunny afternoon,
Thinkin o' nothin' but a ragtime tune.
'Cause I got the blues, I said I got the blues,
I got the paragraphic blues,
Been a'sittin' here since ha' pas' ten,
Bitin' a hole in my fountain pen;
Brain's all stiff in the creakin' joints,
Can't make up no wheezes on the fourteen points;
Can't think o' nothin' 'bout the end o' booze,
'Cause I got the para--, I said I got the paragraphic, I mean the column constructin' blues.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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A Wish
(An Apartmental Ditty.)
Mine be a flat beside the Hill;
A vendor's cry shall soothe my ear
A landlord shall present his bill
At least a dozen times a year.
The tenor, oft, below my flat,
Shall practise 'Violets' and such;
And in the area a cat
Shall beat the band, the cars, and Dutch.
Around the neighbourhood shall be
About a hundred thousand kids;
And, eke in that vicinitee,
Ten pianolas without lids.
And mornings, I suppose, by gosh,
I'll be awakened prompt at seven,
By ladies hanging up the wash
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poem by Franklin P. Adams
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Carpe Diem,' Or Cop The Day
AD LEUCONOEN
Horace: Book I, Ode 13.
_'Tu ne quoesieris, scire nefas-'_
It is not right for you to know, so do not ask,
Leuconoe,
How long a life the gods may give or ever we
are gone away;
Try not to read the Final Page, the ending
colophonian,
Trust not the gypsy's tea-leaves, nor the
prophets Babylonian.
Better to have what is to come enshrouded
in obscurity
Than to be certain of the sort and length of
our futurity.
Why, even as I monologue on wisdom and
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poem by Franklin P. Adams
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