Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONG OF REGINALD BUNTHORNE, FR. PATIENCE, OR BUNTHORNE'S BRIDE!, by WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT


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SONG OF REGINALD BUNTHORNE, FR. PATIENCE, OR BUNTHORNE'S BRIDE!, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthete line, as a man of culture
Last Line: "why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilbert, W. S.
Variant Title(s): Patience: Bunthorne's Song;the Aesthete;the Aesthete


If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture
rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them
everywhere.
You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your complicated
state of mind,
The meaning doesn't matter if it's only idle chatter of a transcendental kind.
And every one will say,
As you walk your mystic way,
"If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me,
Why, what a very singularly deep young man this deep young man must be!"

Be eloquent in praise of the very dull old days which have long since passed
away,
And convince 'em, if you can, that the days of Good Queen Anne was Culture's
palmiest day.
Of course you will pooh-pooh whatever's fresh and new, and declare it's crude
and mean,
For Art stopped short in the cultivated court of the Empress Josephine.
And everyone will say,
As you walk your mystic way,
"If that's not good enough for him which is good enough for me,
Why, what a very cultivated kind of youth this kind of youth must be!"

Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid
spleen,
An attachment à la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too-French
French bean!
Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high
aesthetic band,
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your mediaeval hand.
And every one will say,
As you walk your flowery way,
"If he's content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit me,
Why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be!"





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