And gather thick as bees,
To talk electrons, gases, God,
Old nebulae, new fleas.
Each specialist, each dry-as-dust
And professional oaf,
Holds up his little crumb of crust
And cries, "Behold the loaf!"
Eden Phillpotts - The Learned
The tone of the poem is somewhat mocking: "wag" is ridiculous, "thick as bees" (the constant humm of bees is usually associated with gossip, and in general bees are "busy" but don't really do anything signifcant), "professional oaf", "little crumb of crust" poor, not impressive, cute in an old man or young baby kind of way.
The funniest part is the last two lines, where although the ridiculous old professor has only a little crumb of crust, he "cries, "behold the loaf!" which is really kind of a pompous way to refer to a little bit of bread. It's hardly a loaf, and "Behold!" calls for more attention than necessary, making the speaker sound condescending and the old men endearingly ridiculous.
The simple ABAB rhyme scheme and short quatrains contribute to the overall tone of condescending and looking upon the subjects as being child-like.
No comments:
Post a Comment