Saturday, April 30, 2011

"Adam, his internal fluids, 18"

It hadn't occurred to me that one of the funnier parts of an anthology of bad verse, if done right, would be the subject index. E.g., via Futility Closet, snippets from the index of D.B. Wyndham-Lewis's anthology The Stuffed Owl --
Adam, his internal fluids, 18
Bagpipes, their silence regretted, 151
Bards, dead, common objects of the sea-shore, 66
Beef, death-dealing, 239
Cabbage, true-hearted, 22
Fire, wetness not an attribute of, 28
Maiden, feathered, uncontrolled appetites of, 59
Woman, useful as a protection against lions, 118

This entry is almost a standalone Beckett (or Lydia Davis) story, or a story-of-Alan's-life:
Muse, reformed by a pension, 5; fooled by grovelling sons of verse, 73; the manurial, 91; invited to celebrate Mr. Baker’s return to health, 109; proves unequal to the task, 110

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