I don't think the person who posted the poem was condoning wife-beating - he or she (I don't remember who) even expressed some shock at its contents.

I think of troy was using the poem as an example of changed attitudes, not calling me down for posting it, francais, which is the whole point. To have a poem like that by an author of that stature published in the humor section of a Hallmark poetry anthology in 1960 really boggled my mind. That's why I said I was aghast when I encountered the final line, and put it up as "The Most Politically Incorrect Poem Ever." Just mentioning all this for clarity's sake...my intentions were not to offend but to illustrate what of troy said pertaining to the poem. Thanks, francais, for trying to keep things on even keel.