Yes, you sahm, we're deep in the selva oscura of English class distinctions, where most Americans will blithely put both feet wrong and neither know nor much care. I was able to get the substance of the poem (picturing Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances as the narrator helps) and still missed half of the signposts. I figured N's probably pronouncing it "rekwizeetz" - but what is so non-U about cruets?? And the gaucherie of saying "phone" instead of "telephone"? I have a feeling this was already dated in 1954, when he wrote it.
Who knew, all those years that Good Seasons was selling that Italian salad dressing mix that came with its own "cruet," that they were setting us for non-U status?
If a cruet's non-U,
It means I must be, too,
Though I neither knew it
Nor rue it.
Frank
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-- Frank
Last edited by FOsen; 07-02-2011 at 05:24 PM.
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