Wednesday, November 18, 2009

PPE (Poetic Party Entertainment)

When I was in high school, my AP English teacher said many quotable things. But one, in particular, was that it was always good to have a poem or two under your belt for parties. Whip one of those out, and you'll be the belle of the ball -- with all around awed by your wit, grace, intelligence, and charm. So we were required to memorize this poem, which I still remember pretty well. (I didn't look it up, so you could go compare.)

Loveliest of Trees
by A.E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again.
And take from seventy springs a score,
That only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodland I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Were you in rapture? I know. I know. You should see me do it IN PERSON! (Actually, I'm certain I'll be too wimpy to recite it for you.)

Here is my other party entertainment option:

Could Have Been Worse
by Bill Dodds

My friends have not seen London;
They've never been to France.
But yesterday at recess,
They saw my underpants!

I kicked a ball, my skirt flew up,
And I know what they all saw.
The girls all stared and blushed and laughed,
The boys said, "Oo la la!"

I've thought a lot about it,
And this conclusion I have drawn:
I'm embarrassed that they saw them,
But I'm glad I had them on.

What's your vote on my party entertainment? Do YOU have a poem handy?

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Aww. This charms me. Also, my grandma told her kids the same thing, and my dad still has a poem or two memorized from his youth.

Sarah said...

My teacher never told me that, so I have no poem on hand. But I liked the second very much, I laughed out loud.

David said...

"Big gigs deface twelve pigs."

David said...

"This happy morn, they all will become sad
This beautiful evening, they will become sad
Woe is me, glee is bad!"

e said...

Is this from your random poetry generator? Original works?? I feel so privileged to have them on my blog.

David said...

Both were generated by Jon & Dave's Magic Poetry Generator (built, nearly entirely by Jon, in 1999).

The first snippet was from a poem sent in 1999 by a fictitious Iranian wannabe exchange student to English teachers at private schools as his application. It was the line a particular English teacher engaged in inadvertently hilarious fashion.

The second snippet was from a poem generated yesterday (but still using the 1999 software). It's just so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes!