April 7

I know what you're thinking. Can't she write anything longer than two lines? Well, yes, actually, but the longer the poem gets, the worse it tends to be. I find that if you can't be good - be brief.

clerihew for a tenor
Luciano Pavoritti
made opera less haughty
Rendered Rigaletto
stooped but unforgettable

Something even more theatrical:

If you're anxious for to shine
-W.S. Gilbert
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 ev'rywhere.

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 ev'ry 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 reign 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 ev'ryone 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 a 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 medieval hand.
And ev'ryone will say,

As you walk your flow'ry 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!"