[John Whitworth]

The Vice and Folly of Mankind in 16 lines!!! You said a heaping mouthful, Lucy.

No. 2841: VICE VERSE


You are invited to paint an amusing portrait in verse of the vice and folly of humankind. Please email entries (of up to 16 lines), wherever possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 26 March.

[Adrian Fry]

Vice and folly? Us?

[John Whitworth]

You can imagine it, Adrian. You don't have to do it.

[RCL]

Petersburg’s muse restrained, Ayn shrugged
the Soviet sphere, and soon discovered,
far from Russia, a fountainhead
that fed her streams of US pelf
for writing what appeals to youth,
so unaware of their mortality,
dazed by hormones, seeking identity,
routinely resisting all authority
(remember rebels Dean and Brando?)
restricting them through adolescence—
a phase of passing callowness
that’s cruelty when their older, richer
selves, now seasoned second-handers,*
propagate her selfish anthem,
and namesake Rand’d love to lead ‘em!

*people Ayn Rand despises, repeatedly derides

[Douglas G. Brown]

Though blessed with intellect and brawn, man’s born a slave to Folly;
His Gluttony of food and drink results in melancholy.
Man’s Lust infects his flesh and blood with horrible diseases,
And Avarice will make him steal most anything he pleases.

Green Envy eats away man’s soul and torments his existence,
And Sloth will lead him blindly down the path of least resistance.
His Wrath inspires homicide, which loads a million hearses,
While Pride provokes the likes of me to pen insipid verses.

But lovely woman, blessed with grace, inspires admiration
And saves this cus-sed human race from absolute damnation.

[John Whitworth]

Nice one, Douglas, and plenty of brownie points from your significant other, no doubt.