This is the life

In the good old winter-time!

I do not say this is without faults. With the substance I have, naturally, nothing to do. But as regards form, which of your scribblers of cosmic bathos and “uplift stuff” could more cunningly weave pipe, ice, life, strike, and time into a stanza that has half as much swing and verve, as this? Note also the absence of adjectives. In short, here is poetry with a “punch” to it.

My last example is the most ambitious of all. I present it exactly as it was written without comment. It appeared in The North American Review:

Univernish

Compared with old-method varnishes,

it is convenience and certainty.

It means one finishing varnish

for the job, instead of two or three.

It does away with the extra cans