Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BALLADE OF AN ANNUAL DIFFICULTY, by TED ROBINSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BALLADE OF AN ANNUAL DIFFICULTY, by                    
First Line: Who named the best of holidays
Last Line: "for ""christmas"" hasn't any rhyme!"
Subject(s): Christmas; Rhyme; Nativity, The


Who named the Best of Holidays
Was little better than a fool;
Its rough cacophony betrays
A brain that never went to school.
Or else upon a dunce's stool
That earless oaf was forced to climb,
To mop and mow and grin and drool --
For "Christmas" hasn't any rhyme!

Would that some bard had earned his bays
Ere yet the name had time to cool,
And changed it to a lilting phrase --
We had not known such teen and dule;
'Tis with a sorry, broken tool
We beat upon the season's chime,
And Pegasus balks like a mule,
For "Christmas" hasn't any rhyme.

Lo, while the rooms with candles blaze,
And mirth and youthful laughter rule,
A fatal handicap delays
The poet in the vestibule!
Who'll chide him for his failure? Who'll
Reproach him at this crucial time?
Well may he stammer, mope and pule,
For "Christmas" hasn't any rhyme!

L'Envoi

Consistency, thou art a fool,
And though the substitute's a lime,
We'll wish thee, Life, a Merry Yule,
For "Christmas" hasn't any rhyme!





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