Ah it was a tale told by an Eliot, full of Pound and theory.
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A Virgin's Prayer
Ezra Pound and Augustus John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Cheers,
Peter
Dr. Peter C. Montgomery
Dept. of English
Camosun College
3100 Foul Bay Rd.
Victoria, BC CANADA V8P 5J2
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www.camosun.bc.ca/~peterm
-----Original Message-----
From: Rickard A. Parker [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 2:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Anyone home?
Peter Montgomery wrote:
> Are we still alive?
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen,
I come not here to praise,"
But lend an ear and you will hear
a rag, yes, a rag that is grand, and
Bill Shakespeare never knew
Of ragtime in his days
But the high browed rhymes,
Of his syncopated lines,
You'll admit, surely fit,
any song that's now a hit,
So this rag I submit.
Chorus:
That Shakesperian rag--
Most intelligent, very elegant,
That old classical drag
Has the proper stuff
The line, "Lay on MacDuff"3
Desdemona was the pampered pet
Romeo loves his Juliet
And they were some lovers
You can bet, and yet
I know if they were here today
They'd Grizzly Bear4 in a different way
And you'd hear old Hamlet say
"To be or not to be"
That Shakesperian rag...
"My Kingdom for a horse,
Was what they used to say;"
It's different now, you will allow,
A tune, play a tune, start to croon, soon,
"As you like it" Brutus,
We'll play a rag today.
Then old Shylock danced,
And the Moor, Othello pranced.
Feeling gay, he would say,
as he started in to sway,
"Bring the rag, right away."
[Chorus]
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