Quote #6

His most celebrated poems are, of course, the historical-satirical ballads (A or even X certificate) in which a person or period is 'hit off', in the sense both of being preserved and hit for six.

More from William Plomer

  1. Brzeska and Brooke were among those she knew And she lived long enough to meet Lawrences, too, D. H. and T. E. - she who'd known R. L. S., …
  2. His poetry may be divided into comic extravaganza on the one hand, and more personal work on the other. There is no one like him in the wor…
  3. When her guests were awash with champagne and with gin She was recklessly sober, as sharp as a pin: An abstemious man would reel at her loo…
  4. Oh, the twenties and the thirties were not otherwise designed Than other times when blind men into ditches led the blind, When the rich mou…
  5. A family portrait not too stale to record Of a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord, Who believed that the bank was mightier than the swor…
  6. The commonplace needs no defence, Dullness is in the critic's eyes, Without a licence life evolves From some dim phase its own surprise; Un…

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