The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 4/17/2007)

[RetroLounge]

Genius

Genius, like gold and precious stones,
is chiefly prized because of its rarity.

Geniuses are people who dash of weird, wild,
incomprehensible poems with astonishing facility,
and get booming drunk and sleep in the gutter.

Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheres
far above the vulgar world and fills his soul
with regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth.

It is probably on account of this
that people who have genius
do not pay their board, as a general thing.

Geniuses are very singular.

If you see a young man who has frowsy hair
and distraught look, and affects eccentricity in dress,
you may set him down for a genius.

If he sings about the degeneracy of a world
which courts vulgar opulence
and neglects brains,
he is undoubtedly a genius.

If he is too proud to accept assistance,
and spurns it with a lordly air
at the very same time
that he knows he can't make a living to save his life,
he is most certainly a genius.

If he hangs on and sticks to poetry,
notwithstanding sawing wood comes handier to him,
he is a true genius.

If he throws away every opportunity in life
and crushes the affection and the patience of his friends
and then protests in sickly rhymes of his hard lot,
and finally persists,
in spite of the sound advice of persons who have got sense
but not any genius,
persists in going up some infamous back alley
dying in rags and dirt,
he is beyond all question a genius.

But above all things,
to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse
and then rush off and get booming drunk,
is the surest of all the different signs
of genius.

Mark Twain

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Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, one of the major authors of American fiction. Twain is also considered the greatest humorist in American literature. Twain's varied works include novels, travel narratives, short stories, sketches, and essays. His writings about the Mississippi River, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, have been especially popular among modern readers.

Since the 1960's, some people have come to view Mark Twain's life and outlook as gloomy and even tragic. His later, more bitter works, such as The Mysterious Stranger, were neglected in the years immediately following his death. But they have recently received more attention, resulting in a broader understanding of Twain's personality and works.

Although viewed as having a serious, sometimes pessimistic side, Twain remains best known as a humorist. He effectively used comic exaggeration to attack the false pride and self-satisfaction he saw in humanity. One of his greatest accomplishments was the development of a writing style that was distinctly American, rather than an imitation of the style of English writers. The loose rhythms of the language in his books give the impression of real speech. Twain's realistic prose style has influenced numerous American writers. Ernest Hemingway stated that "all modern American literature comes from ... Huckleberry Finn." ..

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RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[wildhorses]

1. you know some people

confuse genius with insanity
it is a fine line
and i think is easily crossed.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Retro!

Hmmm....somehow this didn't strike me as being by Mark Twain...

His poetry is very different from his prose, isn't it?

I am sure that genius and insanity are related...

Interesting poem......

Thank you...:hug: