There was a young lady of Harwich
Who entered into marriage
With a sailor called Lee.
And when he went to sea
I comforted that young lady of Harwich …
There was a young lady of Harwich
Who entered into marriage
With a man called Hope,
But being unable to cope
She escaped with me in my carriage …
The kiss without love.
The glove
Full
Of a dull
Release
Will bring no peace
In passion hot
Children are begot
And time forgot.
Yet the clock’s whir
Is still there
Heed it or not.
Our man in a place called Bangkok
Owns an old grandfather clock.
Each day at dawn
He takes Pimms on the lawn
To the chimes of that grandfather clock!
Our man in a place called Bangkok
Owns an old grandfather clock.
His mistress Dawn
Thinks the chimes forlorn
So she doesn’t like that clock!
In June 2017, I wrote a post entitled “Its My Blog and I’ll Swear If I Like”, https://newauthoronline.com/2017/06/27/its-my-blog-and-ill-swear-if-i-like/. In that article I argued that everyone has a right to run their blogs as they wish, including utilising swear words in posts. I also stated that swearing has a place in literature, for instance a gangster novel in which none of the characters swear would be wholly unbelievable.
I am, as pointed out in the above piece, no plaster saint myself and will on occasions swear in my personal life. However this is a rarity and when I swear it is, almost always under my breath and its not something of which I am proud.
I was reminded of my 2017 post by this article on the blog of the poet Giles L. Turnbull, http://gilesturnbullpoet.com/2018/04/01/i-swear-that-be-poetry/, in which he discusses the use of swearing in poetry. The article makes for interesting reading but utilises several four letter words, consequently anyone who would find this offensive may wish to avoid clicking on the above link.
As Giles points out, Shakespeare and Larkin (amongst others) employ swear words, for example Larkin’s “This Be The Verse” is famous (infamous)? For beginning with “They f . . k you up your mum and dad, they may not mean to, but they do”, and (in the case of Philip Larkin) the use of the “f” word is wholly justified (there would not be a meaningful poem where he to have written “they mess you up your mum and dad”. However I remain of the view that the sprinkling of poetry (or any other writing) with expletives for no reason other than shock value serves no useful purpose and I personally find such utilisation offensive.
Kevin
Children play
On another hot day,
Their faces
Carrying traces
Of yet another icecream.
As girls pass by
Displaying sunkissed thigh
And young men dream
But not of icecream
I think on
The tinder dry
Heather
And wonder whether
We are too far gone
There was a young lady from Bangkok
Who did my front door unlock.
It was after midnight
And by the star’s bright light
We drank a bottle of Hock.
Disclaimer: many of my own poems could be construed as falling into the category of short verse. It could therefore be argued, with some justification, that I have an axe to grind here.
—
Sometimes, on reading a long poem, I feel that had it been shorter its words would have exerted a greater impact on me as a reader. Yet, as pointed out in this article on Magma Poetry, it is rare for short poems to win poetry competitions, https://magmapoetry.com/writing-short-poems/.
In my opinion, Ernest Dowson’s “Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam” is one of the finest examples in English of a short poem, which conveys a powerful message in only a few lines of verse:
“They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses,
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream”.
In only 8 lines, Dowson powerfully expresses sentiments that other poets have expended whole ink wells in expressing.
As pointed out in the above mentioned article, there is a view (albeit subconscious in many instances of its manifestation), that for a poem to be great it must be long. In point of fact great skill is frequently required to convey a message in only a few lines of verse and terse is by no means invariably worse.
Of course there are many great long poems, for example “Kubla Khan”. It is not, therefore a case of substituting the prejudice that “short is inferior while long is superior” for “short best conveys while long oft overstays”. There are great short (and long) poems but greater recognition should be accorded to the former than is often the case.
As always I would be interested in the views of my readers.
Cheap
Girls shoes.
I choose
Not to keep.
Oh would the night
Wrap me tight
In her longed for arms,
There I would take
Delight.
In her untried charms.
But she
Would forsake
Me
Come break
Of day
And I
Should sigh
And go dally
With Sally
Or Fay.
K Morris - Poet 