Southampton
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,
he asked, middle-aged, voice trembling.
I would rather thou didst not,
came the smooth-faced youth’s reply,
his hand waving in dismissal.
Still dizzy with his money,
earldom and good looks,
poetry was just another cool thing
one could pay for but which shouldn’t
get out of hand, and the ardent
praise of this theatre man
might prove a little embarrassing.
Thinking this he looks at us
from a lost place, long-haired
and dressed in black like many
not-so-posh kids in our time,
as reticent as his cat
(who also sat for the portrait).
Meanwhile the glove-maker’s son
quietly drank his cup of shame,
turned out ageless verse with a smile,
went on to love a dark woman.
he asked, middle-aged, voice trembling.
I would rather thou didst not,
came the smooth-faced youth’s reply,
his hand waving in dismissal.
Still dizzy with his money,
earldom and good looks,
poetry was just another cool thing
one could pay for but which shouldn’t
get out of hand, and the ardent
praise of this theatre man
might prove a little embarrassing.
Thinking this he looks at us
from a lost place, long-haired
and dressed in black like many
not-so-posh kids in our time,
as reticent as his cat
(who also sat for the portrait).
Meanwhile the glove-maker’s son
quietly drank his cup of shame,
turned out ageless verse with a smile,
went on to love a dark woman.
Page(s) 47
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The