Wednesday 16 May 2012

Orang-utan trying to play the violin

SHARE
The majority of husbands remind me of an orang-utan trying to play the violin. 


Balzac






Robert Graves wrote a wonderful poem on this theme. 





A Slice of Wedding Cake    


Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls
   Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
   And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.

Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,
   Foul-tempered or depraved
(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world
   How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate,
   Self-pitying, dirty, sly,
For whose appearance even in City parks
   Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God's supply of tolerable husbands
   Fallen, in fact, so low?
Or do I always over-value woman
   At the expense of man?
                                    Do I?
                                          It might be so.






No comments:

Post a Comment