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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN DEFENCE OF THE ADVERTISING MUSE by RICHARD KENDALL MUNKITTRICK

First Line: SHAKESPEARE SPEAKS: 'SOMETIMES WHEN I'M NOT AT WORK ON A PLAY'
Last Line: THAT THEY ALL WERE WRITTEN BY BACON.
Subject(s): ADVERTISING; POETRY & POETS;

Thy world it is;
Thy music ringing;
Thy stars listening!
A wanderer, I.
Rest, oh, let me rest!
In peace let me lie!
At an ad. to keep me in carfare.

Why shouldn't I praise the bilious pill
And in loftiest numbers chirrup,
And make the popular heartstrings thrill
With a poem on soothing syrup?

Why shouldn't I cleave the cloudless dome
Through the billow of light that's polar,
To rhapsodize on Excelsior Foam
That preserves the fleeting molar?

Sing ho! for the laurels won by me
On the lotion prepared for freckles!
My harp sha'n't hang on the willow tree
While the soap muse brings me shekels.

For I know in a general sort of way,
While with laughter I'm sorely shaken,
That the critics will rise in their might and say
That they all were written by Bacon.



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