Write, said the editor unto the saint, Something all dripping with paradise paint, Something to jazzle and dazzle and please, Something of kneeling and beautiful knees. You write the story and I'll write the head, Margin to margin the copy we'll spread -- Never a blue pencil fussing a sheet -- We'll make a story to sling at the street. Load it with red-headed peppers and thyme, Seek not to cincture an innocent rhyme. Touch all your visions with life's accolade, Only in telling, oh, be not afraid. Sing of a Jezabel flung from a tower, Sing of a Lesbia looting a flower, Sing of a Sappho and detail each thrall, Finally Phryne who walked on them all. Make it as coarse as a cobblestone fight, Make it as sweet as an old man's delight, Put in the pallor and strawberry stain So they will read it -- and read it again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLAD OF HECTOR IN HADES by EDWIN MUIR THE HAPPY LIFE OF A COUNTRY PARSON by ALEXANDER POPE O MAGNET-SOUTH by WALT WHITMAN THE SWAN; TO VICTOR HUGO by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE CHRISTMAS MORNING by RICHARD BECK CHEERFULNESS TAUGHT BY REASON by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |