122
F. W.
DUPEE
become a byword for the reforming artist, there is in all his letters,
I think, no mention of an abuse, from the Ragged Schools to the
pirating practices of editors, that the most ardent conservative of
our day would not find intolerable, an invasion not merely of the
"rights" but of the bases of personality. In this way he remains the
friend of the race as well as of his numerous correspondents; and it
is to the race that his letters, careless as he was of their future,
finally belong.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in
next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.
II
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.
III
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for
the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.
IV
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy, and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!
Kenneth Koch
