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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
POST OFFICE ETCHINGS: 4. INITIATION, by AUSTIN PHILIPS
First Line: They'll put you right!''
Last Line: I have but one thought ... Drink!
Subject(s): Etching
First Line: They'll put you right!''
Last Line: I have but one thought ... Drink!
Subject(s): Etching
"'THEY'LL put you right!'"
Immediate in obedience,
I place myself 'twixt mentors, marvels of proficience,
Eager to imitate their easy sleight
Of hand, their geographical omniscience.
The 'sto-oof' rolls in:
Amid the din
I pause—each cover poised in tyro-hand—
Consider, cogitate, at length demand
"Where does this go?"
Am told ... and so
Thrust it, with imitative, wristy sweep,
On its appropriate heap.
Thus, for three hours,
(Precursing Purgatory!)
I ask and ask and ask ... till my bemused memory
Remembers nothing, and ennui over-pow'rs
Body and mind: what time, admonitory,
Critical, near,
That Overseer
Surveys my state. I feel the fellow smile
And make a mock of my inexpert style
Of sorting. Then
Perspiring men,
All-unexpected, loose a sudden whoop,
A loud, glad cry ... "All o-oop!"
Despatchers come,
(The end of toil now nearing!)
In anxious haste, to make their ultimate clearing—
Before they tie up each particular sum—
Then back again to their own 'boards' go veering:
At last, each drags
His dozen bags
Across the floor, to where, in reeking pot,
The wax awaits to marry seal and knot.
Gargantuan,
The bursting van
Goes station-wards. Drowsy with dust and stink,
I have but one thought ... drink!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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