Poetry by Me, Anthony 7

Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
for C. K. Scott Moncrieff


Oh good grief!
Scott Moncrieff!

You raised to the heights
With your lush delights:
Worthy translations!
(Exultations mulled mushy with euphony!)
Wordy mutations!
(Transfigurations spiced with gentility!)

You had no easy chore in store
To cull sweet sense from vulgate forms,
Haughty in speech stretched forth galore;
Blatant high-soundings typed in swarms.

You jostled fashion in your joust
To find the right sound—le mot juste!
When deemed it so, you blue-penned “oust!”
To awkward false friends frank but soused.

From your toughed gut you howled high your roar
To loam firm this thought of Henry Moore:
At ease the soul sings out whole the score,
As knowing it very well before.

Oh good grief!
Scott Moncrieff!


10 July 1987