SIR WILLIAM GILBERT, master of the lightsome and the lyrical. Employed a sharply pointed pen and eke a style satirical; A pen and style that here and now are absolutely needed— Alas! that no one lives to write the kind of things that he did! "Yet should a Gilbert rise again, with such a gift for gayety, For academic merriment applauded by the laity, Where are the targets now for his satirical confetti? What themes," you ask, "are worthy of Gilbertian libretti?" "What could he find to write of in these U. S. of Ameriky? What is there for a pen so sharply, subtly esotericky?" Alas! there are a thousand themes, you undiscerning filbert, To furnish inspiration to a man like William Gilbert! An opera, say, replete with quip and crank and quirk and quiddity On presidential calmness and Woodrovian placidity; On Secretary Daniels and the varied consequences Attendant on the dearth of ships and similar defences. On Taste in Music, Letters, Art; on War, and on Neutrality; On men and women, rich and poor, in this and that locality; And then—this is the Big Idea, and I shall now unloose it— An opera on the Task of Finding Some One to Produce It. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. SIBLEY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 1. VIETNAM by KAREN SWENSON HE RULETH NOT THROUGH HE RAIGNE OVER REALMES by THOMAS WYATT FORBIDDEN FRUIT: 2 by EMILY DICKINSON THE TRAGEDY OF VALENTINIAN: THE POWER OF LOVE by JOHN FLETCHER A SMUGGLER'S SONG by RUDYARD KIPLING |