Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRO BONO PUBLICO, by PAUL WEST First Line: She knew she had 'a call' to be a poet Last Line: It's gained -- what's twice as valuable -- a cook! Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Women - Writers | ||||||||
She knew she had "a call" to be a poet; She thought, she dreamed in nothing else but rhyme. Could she but mount her pegasus and go it, She felt she'd reach her pinnacle in time. But, oh! like many poets, now and erstwhile, She needed "cash," the bugbear of our race -- And so, to stay her hunger and her thirst while She dreamed in verse, she had to take a "place." Now she's baking, and she's frying, and she's boiling In the kitchen of a flat -- against her will. Who knows but, while above the range she's toiling Her soul poetic things is thinking still. Who cares? Not I! her cooking does not show it. My dinner in that flat, last night, I took; And I'll swear, although the world has lost a poet, It's gained -- what's twice as valuable -- a cook! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPRECHSTIMME (COUNTESS OF DIA) by ANNE WALDMAN THE WOMAN WHO WROTE TOO MUCH by KAY RYAN EPIGRAM: LADY BIOGRAPHER by WILLIAM JAY SMITH MRS. NASSAU SENIOR by ANNIE MATHESON SAPPHO BURNS HER BOOKS AND CULTIVATES THE CULINARY ARTS by ELIZABETH MOODY MAIDENHEAD: WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A FRIEND by JOAN PHILIPS ON MRS. WALKER'S POEMS: PARTICULARLY THAT ON THE AUTHOR by CHRISTOPHER PITT |
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