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...NO MATTER WHAT, AFTER ALL, AND THAT BEAUTIFUL WORD SO by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO J. D. H. (KILLED AT SURREY C. H., OCTOBER, 1866) by SIDNEY LANIER TO A FRIEND IN THE MAKING by MARIANNE MOORE LANCELOT by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON AND THEY OBEY by CARL SANDBURG GRANDFATHER'S LOVE by SARA TEASDALE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? by PAUL VERLAINE |