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Joined: Mar 2000
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 19 |
Good to be back.
I looked for a "poetry search" category on AWADtalk, but this is as close as I could get.
Back in college ('50s), for a speech class, I recited a poem that went over very well. I need the text of the poem and the author - hope you can help. This is as much as I remember:
'Twas at the pictures that we met,
Your father and your mother.
The drama's name I now forget,
but it was like another.
In vain did pure domestics flout
the base but high-born brute.
Their honor might be up the spout:
We did not care a hoot.
For at the opening of the play,
By fortune's wise design,
(It was an accident, I say)
A little hand met mine.
My fingers 'round that little hand
Unconsciously were twisted.
I do not say that it was planned,
But it was not resisted.
Reel after reel, blow to blow,
Toe to toe we sat.
You are not old enough to know
The ecstacy of that.
Etc..............
Please steer me in the right direction. Google has failed miserably, and I know that collectively this list has all knowledge.
AJC
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newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jul 2001
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nope,never heard of it,sorry.....
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The bottom line was as far as I could get.
Sir A P HERBERT
¶ 1890-?; barrister, MP (independent), humorous author
And when the film was finished quite/It made my bosom swell/To
find that by electric light/I loved her just as well.
[‘’Twas at the pictures, child, we met’ in A Book of Ballads]
P. S.(Sir Alan Patrick Herbert), 1890–1971 He died so long ago that A Book of Ballads is really ancient, and no hope of its being mentioned on Internet.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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Hi, patatty!...welcome back! If you go to http://eMule.com/poetry and click on Forum and post your request on the discussion board, you'll find a slew of poetry aficionados there who can help you find the info you're seeking!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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wwh-
I am not worthy.
consuelo
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Consuelo: I do not understand.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A P Herbert was also the author of hilarious short stories called "Misleading Cases" featuring Albert Haddock's brushses with the law, which I loved as a teen. They were also televised in the late seventies? early eighties?. One of my favourites had a lawyer trying to explain to a judge what exactly a crossword is. And, oh joy, I've just googled and found some of them at: http://www.kmoser.com/herbert/ Bingley
Bingley
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addict
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addict
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609 |
Bingley, thanks for that link. I was just going to post about the misleading cases myself. One of my favourites was the flooded road alongside the river where Albert was rowing his dinghy and therefore using rules of the river "on the right" and "power gives way to unpowered" , thereby forcing a car using (UK) road rules "drive on the left" to swerve into deeper water where it stalled and got water damage. Delightfully non-threatening humour with a twisted sense of logic.
Rod
Edit: listed in the link as Rumpelheimer vs Haddock (Port to Port)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 19
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 19 |
Mr. O'N -
Thanx for the lead to the mule site. I've bookmarked it and will use it again.
So far no one has come up with the text for the cite that WWH was kind enough to supply.
But I did get a couple of bonuses, one from Pam on the mule site being Herbert's rhyming rant on a chatty theatergoer (below), and the other Bingley's "Misleading Cases" site.
Still hoping for the text to "at the pictures".
AJC
From Pam:
At the Theatre: To the Lady Behind Me
Dear Madam, you have seen this play;
I never saw it till today.
You know the details of the plot,
But, let me tell you, I do not.
The author seeks to keep from me
The murderer's identity,
And you are not a friend of his
If you keep shouting who it is.
The actors in their funny way
Have several funny things to say,
But they do not amuse me more
If you have said them just before;
The merit of the drama lies,
I understand, in some surprise;
But the surprise must now be small
Since you have just foretold it all.
The lady you have brought with you
Is, I infer, a half-wit too,
But I can understand the piece
Without assistance from your niece.
In short, foul woman, it would suit
Me just as well if you were mute;
In fact, to make my meaning plain,
I trust you will not speak again.
And---may I add one human touch?---
Don't breathe upon my neck so much.
-- A. P. Herbert
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