Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IMITATION, by ANTHONY C. DEANE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IMITATION, by                    
First Line: Calm and implacable
Last Line: Shamefully and conspicuously abased!


CALM and implacable,
Eying disdainfully the world beneath,
Sat Humpty-Dumpty on his mural eminence
In solemn state:
And I relate his story
In verse unfettered by the bothering restrictions of rhyme or metre,
In verse (or "rhythm," as I prefer to call it)
Which, consequently, is far from difficult to write.

He sat. And at his feet
The world passed on -- the surging crowd
Of men and women, passionate, turgid, dense,
Keenly alert, lethargic, or obese.
(Those two lines scan!)

Among the rest
He noted Jones; Jones with his Roman nose,
His eyebrows -- the left one streaked with a dash of gray --
And yellow boots.
Not that Jones
Has anything in particular to do with the story;
But a descriptive phrase
Like the above shows that the writer is
A Master of Realism.

Let us proceed. Suddenly from his seat
Did Humpty-Dumpty slip. Vainly he clutched
The impalpable air. Down and down,
Right to the foot of the wall,
Right on to the horribly hard pavement that ran beneath it,
Humpty-Dumpty, the unfortunate Humpty-Dumpty,
Fell.

And him, alas! no equine agency,
Him no power of regal battalions --
Resourceful, eager, strenuous --
Could ever restore to the lofty eminence
Which once was his.
Still he lies on the very identical
Spot where he fell -- lies, as I said on the ground,
Shamefully and conspicuously abased!





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