We hear a great deal about sex nowadays; it is possible to overestimate its importance, because there are always people who pay it little attention or who apparently manage, like SirIsaac Newton, to get along, without giving it a thought.
"The Child of Queen Victoria", § 1, inThe Child of Queen Victoria, and Other Stories (London: Jonathan Cape, 1933).
Who strolls so late, for mugs a bait, In the mists of Maida Vale, Sauntering past a stucco gate Fallen, but hardly frail?
"French Lisette", st. 1, inPoems from New Writing (London: John Lehmann, 1946), p. 39
The commonplace needs no defence, Dullness is in the critic’s eyes, Without a licence life evolves From some dim phase its own surprise;Under these yellow-twinkling elms, Behind these hedges trimly shorn, As in a stable once, so here It may be born, it may be born.
"The Bungalows", line 45, inA Shot in the Park (London: Jonathan Cape, 1955).
It's so utterly out of the world! So fearfully wide of the mark! ARobinson Crusoe existence will pall On that unexplored side of the Park — Not a soul will be likely to call!
"A Shot in the Park", st. 6, inBoderline Ballads (New York: The Noonday Press, 1955), p. 76.
Out of that bungled, unwise war An alp of unforgiveness grew.
"The Boer War", st. 4, inCollected Poems (1960), p. 20.
On a sofa upholstered in panther skin Mona did researches inoriginal sin.
"Mews Flat Mona: A Memory of the 'Twenties", st. 6, inCollected Poems (1960), p. 116.
Quotations are cited from the first edition (London: Jonathan Cape, 1945).
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 sword, And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad: Just like an old liberal Between the wars.
"Father and Son: 1939", line 1.
Oh, the twenties and the thirties were not otherwise designed Than other times when blind men into ditches led the blind, When the rich mouse ate the cheese and the poor mouse got the rind, And man, the self-destroyer, was not lucid in his mind.
"Father and Son: 1939", line 73.
With first-rate sherry flowing into second-rate whores, And third-rate conversation without one single pause: Just like a young couple Between the wars.
"Father and Son: 1939".
A pleasant old duffer, nephew to a lord, Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword, And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad: Just like an old liberal Between the wars.
"Father and Son: 1939".
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 look As she rolled a bright eye and praised his last book.
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.
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 world in the former genre; as a "light poet" he is preferable toJohn Betjeman – as fluent in traditional forms, his work is never vitiated by refuge in the poetical or high sentimental, and his choice of words is subtler, funnier and altogether sharper. In his other vein Plomer is fastidious, reticent, elegant and the author of some memorable and moving lines.
