My long history with this book, first purchased in Minnesota, a couple years after attending fellow-grad student parties with Garrison Keilor, who was a couple years older, and in Journalism, not English. Memorized completely "You are old, Father William," Lewis Carroll's spoof on the Poet Laureate Southey's preacherly "In the days of my youth I remembered my God,/ And He has not forgotten my age." (280)
I had learned some by heart at age 7, lying on the couch listening to my older brother practice it for his Elocution lesson. Of course, I knew it before he did, to show off. But what a great choice that Elocution teacher in Springfield MA made (around 1950). I celebrated my brother's retirement with an imitation of Carroll's parody:
"You are old, Brother David," young Alan proposed,
"Yet you look just as dapper as ever.
It can't be form jogging, or picking your nose;
It's those sermons that you deliver."

"You lie," Brother David replied to the youth,
In your subtle and nuanced suggestion.
You know I stopped jogging, I swear it's the truth,
When I attained to the age of discretion."

This Parodies tome I claim to have read fifty years ago, but I have found hidden interstices in the last couple weeks off my shelf, aloudreading on morning walks. [I walkread all of Paradise Lost two Springs ago, 30 minutes a morning -- 300 to 400 lines--, mostly aloud: Got to "Through Eden took their solitary way" in less than a month. Seemed shorter than the half dozen times I had read it before. Fave line this time, "To sit in hateful Office, here confined"--Sin guarding the Gates of Hell.] But back to Parodies: Never knew of Keats's parody of Wordsworth, "On Oxford": "…The plain Doric column / Supports an old Bishop and Crosier…There are plenty of trees,/ And plenty of ease,/ And plenty of deer for the Parsons;/ And when it is venison, / Short is the benison,--/Then each on a leg or thigh fastens."(80)
Delightful discoveries: Mrs John Milton's diaries, as "preparing dinner has not been as much fun as I anticipated, because John cannot abide hashed meats." John Galsworthy, Browning galore, and various Whitmans, but also Dickinson and Frost, "Mr Frost Goes South to Boston," with "That's the way with buildings and with people."(230)
Of course, I read with heightened attention as I bring out my new book, Parodies Lost, with my versions of Ashbery, Angelou, Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Wilbur and many more. ( )

Ah, time is fleeting! Nowhere is that better demonstrated than in this book. Most of the authors being parodied i knew at least by reputation if not by reading. Most of those writing the parodies were complete strangers.

I found few of these works to be even a little funny. My lips twitched on occasion but I never laughed out loud. But I freely admit that might be a defect in my intellect or personality. What I didn't understand was why so much that wasn't parody at all was included. For instance, a chapter from Stella Gibbons' "Cold Comfort Farm" was part of the work. Now that is a funny novel but it is not a parody. Why should it be included in a book entitled "Parodies"? Pages from Charles Dickens' "Old Curiosity Shop" are there. It might be considered overly sentimental but it certainly is neither funny nor parody.

Then there are the authors the book terms 'modern'. The greater part of them are lost to the present-day reader unless he or she is a devoted afficionado of ephemeral literature of fifty years ago. I understood the parody of Chaucer much better than I did those.

For the most part, I found the book dull and dry. With the exception of a few pieces such as Jane Austen's "A Sentimental Novel" the book was without humor to me. By all means if you come across it, dip into it, sample it but by no means read it through. I do not feel it is worth the time. ( )

Gift from Mom

Gift from Mom

y, dj
First Edition, name written on top left corner of front cover hidden by dust flap, otherwise perfect condition, no markings inside ( )