Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DEPLORABLE LACK OF SCHOLARSHIP IN AMERICAN HUMORISTS, by ARTHUR GUITERMAN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DEPLORABLE LACK OF SCHOLARSHIP IN AMERICAN HUMORISTS, by                     Poet's Biography
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.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net