Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WOES OF A TALL MAN, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WOES OF A TALL MAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The world -- and who would call it right?
Last Line: Against a medium, average world.
Subject(s): Size And Shape


The world -- and who would call it right? --
Is made for men of medium height;
And I, a meagre six-feet-two,
My exaltation often rue.
My hats I've battered by the score
On many a lowly linteled door.
My luckless head oft wears a scar
To show where cellar steam-pipes are.
The "ready-mades" a fellow buys
Are made for folks of average size.
Mirrors are set to gather in
Sir Six-foot's necktie or his chin.
Some pygmy with malicious pate
Has built all beds for five-feet-eight.
Wagners and Pullmans all contrive
Their scanty berths for five-feet-five.
There's not a table but will squeeze
A man of more than medium knees,
While pews and chairs are all for him --
The chap of Lilliputian limb.

Procrustes, as the ancients said,
Devised a very vicious bed.
His victims, neatly tied to it,
Were masterfully made to fit.
Too long, too short, this baron stout
Just cut them off or stretched them out.
Procrustes' mensurating mood
None, until now, have understood.
The hapless baron certainly
Was six-feet-two, or maybe three,
And thus a righteous vengeance hurled
Against a medium, average world.





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