Grex Agora47 Conference Item 78

0-24

25-49

50-74

75-99

100-124

125-149

150-174

175-199

200-224

Author

Message

25 new of 224 responses total.

polygon

response 150 of 224:

Nov 20 15:48 UTC 2003

Not Ogden Nash.  Not Richard Wilbur.  But yes, an American.

polygon

response 151 of 224:

Nov 20 15:50 UTC 2003

And unlike Landor, the author of the quoted lines did not live to ripe
age.

polygon

response 152 of 224:

Nov 20 15:56 UTC 2003

And oh -- an understandable error.  Apparently George Bernard Shaw was
living when this was written.  The poem predates 1950.

remmers

response 153 of 224:

Nov 20 16:29 UTC 2003

Hm, the poem's misleading then, as it implies that Shaw had already
"paid the debt", which I took to mean had "passed on".  Shaw was born
in 1856, so if he was in his 80s when the poem was written, that would
put the date no earlier than the mid-1930s.  If it's also pre-1950,
that narrows it down to a span of no more than 14 or 15 years.

Okay, an American author active in the 1930s and/or 1940s.  I'll
ponder some more...

response 154 of 224:

Nov 20 18:53 UTC 2003

Reminds me of Samuel Hoffenstein.

twenex

response 155 of 224:

Nov 20 21:15 UTC 2003

I'm not clear whether it's clear that George Bernard Shaw was Irish, not
American...

remmers

response 156 of 224:

Nov 20 21:59 UTC 2003

It's clear to me.  But polygon said that the author (who is not Shaw)
is American.

twenex

response 157 of 224:

Nov 20 22:29 UTC 2003

Ah.
Point.

polygon

response 158 of 224:

Nov 21 14:58 UTC 2003

Re 153.  Yes, the poem was first published when Shaw was in his 80s.

Re 154.  Not Samuel Hoffenstein.

Re 155-57.  Not George Bernard Shaw.

The author's most famous work (and it is very famous) is in prose, not
poetry.  I did not realize the author was also a published poet until I
found this poem.  A Google search found references to other poetry.

slynne

response 159 of 224:

Nov 22 03:18 UTC 2003

Fitzgerald?

polygon

response 160 of 224:

Nov 23 04:50 UTC 2003

Re 159.  Bingo!  F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author.  The poem was first
published in The New Yorker in 1937.  Fitzgerald himself died in his 40s.

Though refereces to the title ("Obit on Parnassus") can be found in
Google, the text of the poem does not appear to be online.

remmers

response 161 of 224:

Nov 23 14:30 UTC 2003

Interesting.  I didn't know that Fitzgerald was a poet either.

rcurl

response 162 of 224:

Nov 23 17:53 UTC 2003

There are only sixty or so Fitzgerald poems - how could you know? 
http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/fitzgerald/

slynne

response 163 of 224:

Nov 23 20:43 UTC 2003

Heh. That was a total lucky guess. I didnt realize that Fitzgerald was 
a poet either. Go figure. 

I have a really cool quote but I am not at home (where the book is) so 
I'll have to enter it later.

happyboy

response 164 of 224:

Nov 23 20:53 UTC 2003

heck, just paraphrase it!

mcnally

response 165 of 224:

Nov 23 23:46 UTC 2003

  That'd make it harder to google..

happyboy

response 166 of 224:

Nov 24 01:48 UTC 2003

see?!

slynne

response 167 of 224:

Nov 25 02:52 UTC 2003

Ok, here is my quote...

"We all four of us been workin together, day in and day out   for , oh 
lord, I don t know how long. We done raised crops and chilren together, 
done kept that brick house so clean you could eat off the floors. But 
like Letta always says, who wanna eat off a floor?
        You think somebody gonna throw us a party for getting through 
all this? No sir. You don t get no trophies for liven the life you born 
into. It just be your job, and you lucky if you can do the work set out 
in front of you and not fret if it seem puny. Maybe the Good Lord ain t 
give us nothing but puny things. Little bitta things sparklin through 
our days and nights. In the fields and in the mornin air, little bitta 
things that if you blink your eye, they be gone and ain t never comin 
back."

other

response 168 of 224:

Nov 25 03:21 UTC 2003