Froth

Frothy blossoms on a street tree near Dick’s Kitchen on NW 21st Avenue. Do look large at the one on the bottom.

Chantler63 Shakespeare Challenge and National Poetry Writing Month
Day 5: Froth - a foolish gentleman in ‘Measure for Measure’

My first time at Dick's Kitchen. Had a fabulous paleo Thai salad with grass-fed beef while composing today's magnum opus. This Shakespeare-plus-poetry stuff is seriously getting in the way of my novel!!!


POEM IN PRAISE OF PRACTICALLY NOTHING BUT FROTH*

A wee confession I must make:
Though poet I may be,
It isn’t Will’s soliloquies
That fill me full of glee.

His tragedies are dignified
And brilliant and profound,
But comedy pentameter
Is where my joys abound.

The slapstick and the saucy puns
Are what appeal to me,
And poets following in this path
Are models all for me.

I’ll bet my cash on Ogden Nash
For silliness galore.
I’ll bet a pink pajama** that
His couplets will not bore.

And Stephen Leacock was a prince
Of foolishness, I claim.
I’ll strive to match his Social Plan
Or Scribbler ain’t my name.

Of Edward Lear I have no fear
Though monstrous are his limericks.
“There was an Old Man,” he’d start again
And top his previous gimmicks.

Then, Lewis Carroll—how I’d be
Cut gladly of his cloth.
Of all my models he’s the king
Of jabberwocky froth.

So listen up, you poem fans
Who think my poem’s bad.
At least its frothy pedigree’s
The best that can be had.

* 'Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing' is the title of a collection of frothy poems by Stephen Leacock. The book was in my childhood home and Leacock is one of the first poets I ever read.

** I'm dismayed that no one has posted this poem on the Web which I learned in my youth, and it's not in any of my poetry books. So here it is by heart (title forgotten).
A one-L lama is a priest,
A two-L llama is a beast,
And I will bet a pink pajama
You've never seen a three-alarmer.