Some men never think of it.
You did. You’d come along
And say you’d nearly brought me flowers
But something had gone wrong.
The shop was closed. Or you had doubts —
The sort that minds like ours
Dream up incessantly. You thought
I might not want your flowers.
It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, look, the flowers you nearly broughtHave lasted all this while.
Wendy Cope is an English poet, born in 1945 and educated at Oxford. She has the wonderful gift of being funny & witty and heart-achingly sad at the same instant. This poem makes you smile but the last two lines are capable of somehow enabling you to understand the underlying sorrow being expressed.
She has the ability to stick a pin in the bubble of pretension. Her poems always seem to be about men and love and are usually very funny but still contain that persistant hint of melancholy.
Here's one more:
Bloody Men
Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You're trying to read the destinations,
You haven't much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, the hours, the days.
6 comments:
I like Wendy Cope's poetry, she's a very entertianing reader too. Thanks for your comment on my blog, bazza. Haiku in English don't necessarily follow the 5-7-5 rule as syllables in English are so different from syllables in japanese. There are lots of other aspects to haiku, you can browse some of the links listed under Haiku etc in my sidebar to find out more...
Hello Crafy one! Thanks for dropping by. I think Wendy Cope is lot's of fun. On my previous blog I wrote about Fiona Pitt-Kethly and got an email from her!
Thanks for the Haiku advice; much appreciated.
Her style vaguely reminds me of the Liverpool poets like Roger McGough.
I like the apparently matter of fact style which masks such powerful feelings.
Yes Bob, I think you are quite right about McGough. It's easy to underestimate these kinds of poets but they are often keen observers of themselves and others.
You have correectly descibed the impact of Wendy Cope's style.
Hi Bazza :)
Wendy Cope's poems are indeed entertaining, simple and straight-to-the-point. I love it! :)
Thank you for sharing her poetry! I'm a fan already.
Take care :)
Hi Shanaz, thanks for looking in.
I'm glad you liked Wendy's work.
There are some other female UK poets whom I will be writing about in the future. Keep in touch.
ps: you have a super blog!
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