Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON THE DEPLORABLE LACK OF SCHOLARSHIP IN AMERICAN HUMORISTS by ARTHUR GUITERMAN

First Line: BEHOLD IN ME A HEAVY INTELLECTUAL
Last Line: I WONDER WHEN I'LL TUMBLE TO MYSELF.
Subject(s): HUMORISTS; SCHOLARSHIP & SCHOLARS;

Behold in me a Heavy Intellectual.
I strive to give those sorry human dregs,
My elders, now so feebly ineffectual,
Instruction in the art of sucking eggs.

Our Writing Class is just a sordid dollarship
With scarce a tint of Truth's eternal flame,
Devoid of Background, destitute of Scholarship --
Or any how it was before I came.

I need not read the work of those I criticize,
For every schoolboy knows they'll have to start
To Russianize or Germanize or Briticize
Before we get a gleam of Native Art.

While some, I hear, have gained at minor colleges
B.A.'s, M.A.'s, or even Ph.D.'s,
Such homemade tags are ludicrous apologies
For Oxford, Bonn or Heidelberg degrees.

I quite approve of Humor when it's serious;
I'll even tolerate a learned pun;
But Mirth, as such, is highly deleterious,
And what I most abominate, is Fun.

I wonder how the public stands their caperings.
I wonder why their books adorn the shelf.
I wonder who will print my solemn vaporings.
I wonder when I'll tumble to myself.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net