In The Garden Party, poet Hilaire Belloc dissected the “hoary social curse”:
The rich arrived in pairs
And also in Rolls Royces
They talked of their affairs
In loud and strident voices.
The poor arrived in Fords
Whose features they resembled
And laughed to see so many lords
And ladies all assembled. (C2, D, E)
The people in between
Looked underdone and harassed
And out of place and mean
And horribly embarrassed. (A, B, C1)
As a humble sequel to this delightful Belloccian observation ,I composed an update in 1988 whilst in the wastes of the Libyan Sahara to reflect the great changes in societal structures in the past 75 years .
ReplyDeleteThe Rich arrived in Fords
A preference well commended.
As even they record
Rolls Royce's run expended,
The poor came in Rolls Royces,
Old ,shabby and pretentious,
They winced to see so many Fords ,
So sleek,so fast, so sensuous .
Mike Day.
Suphanburi ,
Thailand 72120
Nice!
ReplyDeleteQuote the whole poem?
ReplyDeleteIt goes on:
ReplyDeleteAnd the hoary social curse
Gets hoarier and hoarier
And it stinks a trifle worse, than in
The days of Queen Victoria
When they married and gave in marriage
and danced at the County Ball
And some of them kept a carriage
And the flood destroyed them all!
Dear Lucy R. Fisher!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for supplying the vital final verse, to which Belloc's two previous verses immaculately LEAD THE WAY!!!
Delete