The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1955-10-14

and the road? The little road says go; the
little house says stay :" Well the author of
that pleasing poem Josephine Preston Pea
body who was the wife of Lionel Marks Our
own bard finds delight in that lifting name,
Josephine Preston Peabody Marks and expresses
it in
TRIBUTE TO A DECEASED POET
Josephine Preston Peabody Marks,
Gone TO your grave these many years,
Your songs are dying and distant sparks,
But your radiant name undmmed appears
Four-jointed gee in world of tears,
Lifting, jubilant, quadruple cheers,
Raising the heart and the soul that harks
Banishing dullness, chasing fears,
Stirring the spirit of romps and larks,
Josephine Preston Peabody Marks!
We have all experienced the inSolence with
which booksellers and reviewers declare that
this or that publication is a MUST. Reaction
fully iustified) to this brash insistence is pre-
sented thus: .. ~ .-..
REQUIESCAT -. t
For my part, LET that book abide
On dealers shelves to gather dust
Of which the ardent critics cried,
This is must" -.-s
ON the same irritating theme, we have
parody of Emersons quatrain from "Vofuntar-
les" (you know it,
so nigh is grandeur to our dust
So near is God TO man,
When duty whispers low, Thou must
The youth replies, cam
The parody is this:
ON-VOLuNTkRIES
So ptaguey stubborn is our dust
So in our ways we're Sot
When books are offered with, Thou must,
The free man yells, PH not
One of life's constant trials is The person
who decides all issues with pronouncement pre-
faced by the phrase like, ITO my mind . q. - or
"As il seems to me =" The poet offers this
person a rebuke in not too gentle irony:
AS SEE IT
cannot think what he can mean
The man who says that grass is green
And lacs purple | have found
The facts the other way around,
Green liacs are sheer delight
To gather on a frosty night,
And all the grass is, | insist
AS purple as amethyst
Sheer whimsy appears in this:
BRIEF HISTORY OF AN EXACT
AND BELLICOSE PARSONAGE
My friend, known geometer,
Possessed fine barometer,
And many good thermometer.
He owned an anemometer,
And wore wrist-chronometer.
He read his eectrometer
And likewise his gasometer
His steps by pedometer
measured; tachometsr
Exposed al each kometer
His vibrancy etc-ometer.
He had Turkish semitar
Attached 10 his perimeter,
And cussed in fervid dimeter
My friend the gruH geomeier,
Was blown up by bombeter.
Here is quatrain that may touch respon-
sive chord:
THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AND BOYS
CHoIRS GENERALLY AND CHoRUSES WHICH
PERFORM A CAPPELLA
You sing to multtudes, and so
You show up on T.V
But have tuned you out, and OH
The difference to met
Somber realism appears in this bit Of elegy.
LAST THINGS
think, IL should die this very night,
CA suppostion dear to every poe)
That few there are To whom my going might
Occasion woe, and few would even know it,
And as, at duty's call, these burdened few
Would knee beside my corpse, likely
thought
To cross their minds and stir their whispers
too
Would be, This casket must have cost a lot"
We'll, so he's gone" quondam friend might
say.
In solemn accents, moi without throb,
Sad he was snatched 50 suddenly away
wonder who is going to get his job
Another, on the cold deceased intent
Might muse with proddings of the folk be.
reftl
Had he insurance, and to what extent?
I'd dearly love TO know how much he left"
When at the last the grave should claim its
own
And marshalled mourners at its side appear
One to another fretfully might moan,
This ground Is damp, lets hurry out of
here