Saturday, May 14, 2005

Playing Foote-sy with Poetry

Rivers: I think you went “nature” to please me. Is this a typical Foote?
Foote: You’re right. Most of my sonnets concern Greek gods, puns, or poetry.
Majors: It’s harmless enough this one. Although it lacks any central metaphor.
Lingua: This poem is ancient. DOA. It’s an objective anachronism. An appendix.
Foote: Tradition is a marvelous spectacular continuum. Not everything is new.
Lingua: Well certainly your thinking isn’t. Yawn. Wake me when this is over.
Majors: And truth be told, this would go into the dead letter bin with any editor.
Rivers: OK. I do like lines eight through ten. They do have a nice flow.
Foote: There’s nothing like iambic pentameter to boogaloo down Broadway.
Lingua: I think it’s more like a minuet. I smell a powdered wig in your closet.
Foote: I think your criticisms are horribly inane. And no I’m not and so are you.
Majors: Please. Both of you. Your behavior is not becoming for published poets.
Rivers: And back to the poem. Ry, why no substitutions in this sonnet?
Foote: Well, my thought is that you dance with whom you brung.
Majors: Well, you had better dance with it. No one I know will print it.
Lingua: And you’ve danced with a lot of editors I’m sure, you print whore.
Majors: Editors are of a class of individual I’m sure you do not know.
Foote: Excuse me, we’re talking about my poem. An actual sonnet you know.
Lingua: Follow the rules. Obey the by-laws. Cross your T’s. It’s all been done.
Rivers: OK. Would you like to expound on the closing couplet.
Foote: Just when you think it’s safe to go back into the water; Jaws!
Lingua: Duh-duh Duh-duh Duh-duh Duh-duh Duh-duh Duh-duh. Dead poet!
Majors: I so dislike it when a discussion devolves into popular culture. Rejected!
Rivers: And as we’ve established is our tradition; the last word is yours Foote.
Foote: Sonnet! Sonnet! Sonnet! Sonnet! Sonnet! Sonnet! Sonnet!

1 comment:

BeckoningChasm said...

Very entertaining, and a nice illumination of the thought processes involved when reading a poem.

For added fun, try sounding some of the dialogue in voices from Family Guy. Peter Griffin as Lingua works quite well.