Three scholars, old, respectable,
Debated on FB:
Are ladies' hearts susceptible
To songs and poetry?
Bernard from Berkeley said that Feste
Advised the am'rous beau:
"A suitor's chances will be best
Who sings both high and low"
Then Ernie D. from NYU
Remembered Kiss Me Kate:
"Brush up your Shakespeare when you woo,
And you will get a mate."
But Nick said "That will often fail.
There was a punt..." quoth he.
And then the Cantab told his tale
Of youthful misery.
"When I was young — but twenty-one —
One third the age I am,
I used to have a lot of fun
In punting on the Cam.
One afternoon, by happy chance,
I had fair company:
Four damozels from Paris, France
Sat in the punt with me.
We saw, beyond the river's foam
A field of daffodil
I quoted William Wordsworth's poem,
With great dramatic skill.
I hoped one maiden in the boat
In that irenic place
On hearing that romantic quote
Would kiss me on the face.
Not so. Their smiles were polite
But not a single miss
Gave any signal that she might
Be moved to give a kiss.
Like Keats's knight abandoned by
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
I sat forlorn. Since that time I
Don't woo with poetry."
This is a rendition into verse of a Facebook conversation between the poet
and his two friends Bernard Kobes and Nicholas Denyer, March 28, 2024.
This is part of the collection
Verses for the Information Age
by
Ernest Davis