A Word For It

Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Chicago, Illinois) – 1960 (New York City, New York)



'Scorn not the sonnet.' Well, I reckon not,
  I would not scorn a rondeau, villanelle,
  Ballade, sestina, triolet, rondel,
Or e'en a quatrain, humble and forgot,
An so it made my Pegasus to trot
  His morning lap what time he heard the bell;
  An so it made the poem stuff to jell-
To mix a met.-an so it boil'd the pot.

Oh, sweet set form that varies not a bit!
  I taste thy joy, not quite unknown to Keats.
    'Scorn? ' Nay, I love thy fine symmetric
      grace.
In sonnets one knows always where to quit,
  Unlike in other poems where one cheats
    And strings it out to fill the yawning
      space.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
54

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDEFCDEF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 603
Words 116
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8

Franklin P. Adams

Franklin Pierce Adams was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F. P. A.. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please. A prolific writer of light verse, he was a member of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s. more…

All Franklin P. Adams poems | Franklin P. Adams Books

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