Thu 14 Aug 2008
Long ago, back in the mists of time, we had a salon at which the discussion turned at one point to one of my favorite comic poems, An Overworked Elocutionist by Carolyn Wells. As you know, the poem is about a little boy named Robert Reese who has memorized so many poems that one day he just can’t keep them straight, and recites bits and pieces of over twenty of them — in rhyming iambic heptameter, natch. Wouldn’t it be cool, we said, to make an online version with in-line links to each of the poems it quotes?
Well, here it is at last, friends. Putting this together was a delight as only the geeky pursuits we love best can be. I sleuthed out some truly hard-to-find poetry, followed some false leads, and got to revisit some dear old classics. So much of the energy and emotion and melodrama that first drew me to poetry as a kid is in here. There are husky whispers, dying words, tender goodbyes, lingering by shingly bars and babbling on the pebbles, escape via death from fates worse than, and deep life-lessons such as “blind obedience to authority is a good way to get dead,” not to mention “be nice to trees and horses.”
Thank you for inspiring and encouraging me to do this project. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.