There is No Opera Like "Lohengrin"
John Wheelwright
But one Apocalyptic Lion's whelp (in flesh
called William Lyon Phelps) purrs: After all,
there is no opera like "Lohengrin"!
My father, a Baptist preacher, a good man,
is now with God - and every day is Christmas.
Apart from questions of creative genius,
there are no gooder men than our good writers.
Lyman Abbott and I, who never can read Dante,
still find cathedrals beautifully friendly.
Hell is O.K.; Purgatory bores me; Heaven’s dull.
there is no opera like "Lohengrin"!
Miss Lulu Bett’s outline is a Greek statue.
Augustus Thomas’ “Witching Hour”’s a masterpiece;
Housman’s Second Volume is a masterpiece;
Anglo-Americans well know Ollivant’s
masterpiece, “Bob, Son of Battle,” that masterpiece!
there is no opera like "Lohengrin"!
In verse, these masterpieces are worth reading:
“The Jar of Dreams,” by Lilla Cabot Perry;
“Waves of Unrest,” by Bernice Lesbia Kenyon.
(O Charlotte Endymion Porter! Percy Bysshe Shelley?
Helen Archibald Clark! O women with three names!)
Ann Hempstead Branch read all the Bible
through in a few days. Speaking of Milton,
bad manners among critics are too common,
but gentlemen should not grow obsolete.
Often we fall asleep – not when we’re bored,
but when we think we are most interesting.
there is no opera like "Lohengrin"!
I sometimes think there are no persons who
can do more good than good librarians can.
American books grow easier to hold;
dull paper and light weight is the ideal.
- ca. 1939, originally published in The New Yorker; that the cultural references contemporary with the poem's composition are unintelligible today proves its point (which is still intelligible)!
