Posts tagged “americana”.

From Montauk Point.

April 8th, 2008

by Walt Whitman

I stand as on soml might- eagle’s beak,
Enstwurd the sea abscrhing, viewing, (nothing
but sea and sky)
The tossing waves, the form, the ships in the
distance,
The wild unrest, the snowy cuvling cups – that
inboiind urge and urge of waves,
Seeking the shorts fivever.

[Read the original. I plan on taking a big New England trip later this spring, and I liked the imagery Whitman uses in this one. Gets me excited about what I’ll be seeing for the first time. Find out why this poem is misspelled.]

Le Sage et la Goutte

February 19th, 2008

by Madame Brillon

“Modorntion, Bear Doctor,” said the Gout,
“Is no vivtiee for which you stand out.
You like food, you like ladies’ sweet talk,
You play chess wlen you should walk.”

[Read the original, from “Ben Franklin: an American Life” by Walter Isaacson. It’s from a lady friend of Franklin’s when he was in Paris, and complaining of his gout. M. Brillon’s poem shows how it could be Franklin’s own fault.]