Page 76 - Poetry-Books
P. 76
A Literary Order
The thought most optimistic that
Doth come to me these days
Is this,—and how I laugh thereat!
That pessimism pays!
Why, only yesterday I wrote
A poem full of light;
I sent it out, and got a note
Returning it ere night.
“These lines are nice,” the writer said;
“They show a dainty touch:
But you our paper can’t have read,
We think, so very much.
This happy stuff is out of date;
Depression is the thing,
And verses now must growl at fate
To have the proper ring.
“Declare that life is wholly grief,
That all on earth is wrong;
Make ‘every man’s’ a fool or thief’
The burden of your song.
Drop gladsomeness, drop all your mirth,
Drop sunshine and fresh air,
And send us in ten dollars’ worth
Of gloom and dark despair.”
— John Kendrick Bangs (Century Magazine, 1893)
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