rifmopletstvo

[Robert Orr]

Subject: rifmopletstvo


Actually, the examples given by Rodney Patterson of Eddie Guest and Demjan
Bednyj are almost classic, prize-winning  poetry compared to the greatest
rifmoplet of all, whose material was so awful that it has lived on, and
spawned a cult (check out http://www.spda.com/mcgonagall/browse_gems.cfm ),

I refer to McGonagall's "Poetic Gems:"

I've taken the liberty of copying a representative one below

"Some of the worst things in it are so bad that they should be collected as
precious artifacts of versified atrocities against poetry or as pure
comedy."



 A Descriptive Poem On The Silvery Tay

 Beautiful silvery Tay,
 With your landscapes, so lovely and gay,
 Along each side of your waters, to Perth all the way;
 No other river in the world has got scenery more fine,
 Only I am told the beautiful Rhine,
 Near to Wormit Bay, it seems very fine,
 Where the Railway Bridge is towering above its waters sublime,
 And the beautiful ship Mars,
 With her Juvenile Tars
 Both lively and gay,
 Does carelessly lie
 By night and by day,
 In the beautiful bay
 of the silvery Tay.
 Beautiful, beautiful! silvery Tay,
 They scenery is enchanting on a fine summer day,
 Near by Balmerino it is beautiful to behold,
 When the trees are in full bloom and the cornfields seem like gold -
 And nature's face seems gay,
 And the lambkins they do play,
 And the humming bees is on the wing,
 It is enough to make one sing,
 While they carelessly do stray,
 Along the beautiful banks of the silvery Tay,
 Beautiful silvery Tay, rolling smoothly on your way,
 Near to Newport, as clear as the day,
 They scenery around is charming I'll be bound...
 And would make the heart of any one feel light and gay on a fine summer
day,
 To view the beautiful scenery along the banks of the silvery Tay

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