|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ABOUT TROUT, by ARTHUR GUITERMAN Poet's Biography
First Line: The trout first under observation
Last Line: That life is mighty hard on trout.
Subject(s): Trout
First Line: The trout first under observation
Last Line: That life is mighty hard on trout.
Subject(s): Trout
The Trout first under observation
Had much too much imagination:
Because he let his fancy rule him,
It wasn't any trick to fool him.
Some vari-colored bits of feather
By crafty fingers tied together
Appeared -- it really seems incredible --
To him appeared distinctly edible.
And hence, by all his friends regretted,
This hapless Trout was played and netted.
A second Trout, devoid of vision,
At pretty-pretties flung derision.
His soul was mean, his brain was earthly,
His body waxed unduly girthly.
No gaudy flies, no fancy dishes,
But grubs, said he, were food for fishes:
Yet those that rush for grubs and win them
See not the barbs that lie within them;
And this low-minded Trout was fated
To meet a hook adroitly baited.
Our final Trout was too suspicious:
Because he knew that men are vicious,
In every fly that hit the water
He saw an instrument of slaughter, --
In every toothsome caterpillar
A salmo-fontinalis-killer.
So, like a veteran dyspeptic,
At dinner-time a bitter skeptic,
For fear of eating indiscreetly
The creature starved himself completely.
Which proves, I think, beyond a doubt,
Whatever way you work it out,
That life is mighty hard on Trout.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
AT THE SAND CREEK BRIDGE by JAMES GALVIN
THE TROUT; FOR BARRIE COOKE by JOHN MONTAGUE
THE IDLER'S CALENDAR: APRIL. TROUT-FISHING by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT
THE SPECKLED TROUT by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN
THE MYTH (A THAMES TROUT) by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS
TO AN OLD FRIEND by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS
TO MR JOHN BARTLETT, WHO HAD SENT ME A SEVEN-POUND TROUT by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
THE TROUT by THEOPHILE JULIUS HENRY MARZIALS