How vairy English was Wystan Hugh Auden
while far too tart to be labelled a toff
who else but a Pom, in a poem on war
could have mesomorph rhyme with off?
W.H. was a word-rescuer and neologue
obtemper, osse, glop … just a few he offshows
ever so caustic with slop and the slip-shod:
“No one hears his own remarks as prose.”
Wrinkled Auden, wrankled Auden
forgiving as fog, disinfectant as bleach
wielded his verb and his gin with a grin
for “The Ogre cannot master Speech.”
Notes:
Behold the manly mesomorph
Showing his bulging biceps off
from a poem titled with this first line.
Unrhymed, unrhythmical the chatter goes
Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose
from “At the Party”
The Ogre cannot master Speech
from “August 1968”