The Literary Life Podcast

Episode 4: "Gaudy Night" Chapters 1-3

Apr 22, 2019 · 1 hr 6 min · Season 1 · Episode 4 · 96.2 MB
0:00-1:06:47

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Today's poem:

A Slice of Wedding Cake by Robert Graves

Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls

Married impossible men?

Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,

And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.

Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,

Foul-tempered or depraved

(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world

How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate,

Self-pitying, dirty, sly,

For whose appearance even in City parks

Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God's supply of tolerable husbands

Fallen, in fact, so low?

Or do I always over-value woman

At the expense of man?

Do I?

It might be so.