Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO SIR OWEN SEAMAN, by ARTHUR GUITERMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO SIR OWEN SEAMAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: To you whom last I saw absorbing lunch
Last Line: "let's emphasize the ""we"
Subject(s): Comedy; Seaman, Owen, Sir (1861-1936)


To you whom last I saw absorbing lunch
('Twas at the Cheshire Cheese, O princely gleeman!),
To you, sagacious editor of Punch,
In point of fact, to you, Sir Owen Seaman,
I tune my dulcimer; for you is blown
My plaintive saxophone.

Yet can you prize a meagre serenade
When every week you have your Charivari?
Who marks another star, but feebly rayed,
When all his sky is gloriously starry?
But though you want no medals, anyhow
I'll pin one on you now:

Because you knew your task -- to hearten men
For griefs that were and griefs to come thereafter.
When all the world went mad, you proved again
The saving sanity of valiant laughter
And reared against the tyrannies of earth
Indomitable mirth.

Besides, what edifying lights you throw
On Uncle Sam, his nephews and his nieces!
What curious Americans you know!
They constitute an unfamiliar species
Whose habitat is England; for, it's queer,
We never meet them here.

Their speech is odd; to us it's heathen Greek.
They swagger so! they strike fantastic poses.
Their slang is weird and shamefully antique.
They brag profusely, always through their noses,
And drawl persistently, in joy or stress,
"I reckon," or "I guess."

Enough of that. What difference does it make!
For when did brother fail to mock at brother?
Then let us mock for old acquaintance' sake
And have our quips and flings at one another;
And while we laugh, "What fools we mortals be!"
Let's emphasize the "we"





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