Steve, a questing Bucknell if ever there was one. Marvellous! So glad the quest in this case achieved such a happy result. What a fascinating transition from metallurgist to master of light verse up there in the New Yorker etc with Nash and the others, not to mention the novels and other books. The collection or festschrift idea sounds interesting.
Another snippet from the web (whose quirks would surely provide a wealth of topics for RPL if he were still writing): 'Defenestration' was set to music by the group Instant Sunshine, one of whose members was the late Miles Kington of 'Franglais' fame.
I too am off to order 'The Idle Demon' and any others I can find. In the meantime, I hope RPL won't mind one more appetite-whetter appearing here, the wry knockabout of 'The Albatross', still flying in a far corner of cyberspace, though I can't answer for the punctuation, another reason for searching out the originals. Enjoy Corfu, Steve, you've earned it!
The Albatross R.P. Lister
I sailed below the Southern Cross
(So ran the seaman's song);
A pestilential albatross
Followed us all day long.
The creature's aspect was so grim,
And it oppressed me so,
I raised and on a sudden whim,
I lowered my crossbow.
The weather grew exceeding thick;
The sullen tempest roared.
A dozen of the crew fell sick,
The rest fell overboard.
The skies were so devoid of light
We could not see to pray.
The donkeyman went mad by night,
The second mate by day.
We set the live men swabbing decks,
The dead man manned the pumps.
The cabin steward changed his sex;
The captain had the mumps.
The cargo shifted in the hold,
The galley boiler burst.
My hair turned white, my blood ran cold -
I knew we were accurst.
I helped the purser dig his grave
On the deserted poop;
I leaped into the foaming wave
And swam to Guadeloupe
And there (he said) I nibbled moss
Beside the stagnant lake . . .
I should have shot the albatross,
That was my big mistake.
|