Community Chat

[Oznell]

Born on March 21, 1905, Phyllis McGinley was a master of light verse, essays, children's works.  She was a kind of poet of midcentury suburban observation. 

Her daughter said that Phyllis and her father led a kind of benign "Mad Men" existence.  Pulitzer winner, Time Magazine cover subject.  Now rarely spoken of.

Here, she brings her sharp sensiblity to a dentist appointment, in "Intimations of Mortality":

  "....But your apple of comfort is eaten by worms, and is sour".....

( Ha-- she's got that dentist's number.)   If you read the poem below, I'd turn off the narration-- it's hideous, sounds like a robo-recital.  You'll benefit more by reading the poem with the sound off!  

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/intimations-of-mortality/

[rrpell]

Thanks for posting @Oznell 

I had completely forgotten about her.  This morning, I spent a little time reading about her and enjoying some of her poems. 

One of the articles stated she described her work as “sonnets from the suburbs”.

“I love my daughters with a love unfailing,

I love them healthy and I love them ailing.

I love them as sheep are loved by the shepherd,

With a fiery love like a lion or a leopard.

I love them gentle or inclined to mayhem -

But I love them warmest after eight-thirty a.m”

[ValuSkr]

@rrpell   That one reminds me of Ogden Nash. 

[rrpell]

@ValuSkr   It does!

oh my gosh, I just had the best time reading some of Ogden Nash’ poems...  thank you for the reference.  I find his verses are as funny now as when I first read him.

“To keep your marriage brimming
with love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.”

— "A Word to Husbands"

“Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore,

And that’s what parents were created for.”