Shall I, lying in a grot, Die because the day is hot? Or declare I can't endure Such a torrid temperature? Be it hotter than the flames South Gehenna Junction claims, If it be not so to me, What care I how hot it be? Shall I say I love the town Praised by Robinson and Browne? Shall I say, "In Summer heat Old Manhattan can't be beat"? Be it luring as a bar, Or my neighbor's motor-car, If I think it is pazziz What care I how fine it is? Shall I prate of rural joys Far from civic smoke and noise? Shall I, like the others, drool "But the nights are always cool"? If I hate to rise at six Shall I praise the suburbs? Nix! If the country's not for me, What care I how good it be? Town or country, cool or hot, Differs nothing, matters not; For to quote that Roman cuss, Why dispute "de gustibus"? If to this or that one should Take a fancy, it is good. If these rhymes look good to me, What care I how bad they be? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNETS ATTEMPTED IN THE MANNER OF CONTEMPORARY WRITERS: 2 by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS IN THE WHITE LAND by KONSTANTIN DMITRIYEVICH BALMONT FORLORN, MY LOVE by ROBERT BURNS EASTER BRIDAL SONG by ALICE CARY THE ABIDING LOVE by JOHN WHITE CHADWICK ON THE DEATH OF SIR ANTHONY VANDIKE, THE FAMOUS PAINTER by ABRAHAM COWLEY |