{"id":5832,"date":"2017-03-19T18:15:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T18:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=5832"},"modified":"2017-03-19T18:15:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T18:15:16","slug":"the-cambridge-companion-to-academic-dipshits-a-poem-by-rw-haynes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/the-cambridge-companion-to-academic-dipshits-a-poem-by-rw-haynes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cambridge Companion to Academic Dipshits. A Poem by R.W. Haynes"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nA fat old parrot\u2019s fine impersonation
\nOf a dean, on YouTube, set our friend a laughing
\nWhich he couldn\u2019t stop. It turned to coughing,
\nAnd he died, sort of happy, at his station.
\n 
\nWe found in his desk, stashed carelessly,
\nAn ancient manuscript he was translating
\nFrom Sicilian Greek, a tragedy dating
\nFrom Plato\u2019s time, and indeed relating
\nTo the philosopher, for his great enemy
\nDionysius the First of Syracuse
\nWrote the play to defend his tyranny
\nAgainst Plato\u2019s defense of liberty
\nAnd attack on his autocratic abuse,
\nTyranny raging against philosophy.
\n 
\nDo we moralize against tyranny,
\nAlthough small fish, but not so small
\nAs delicious minnows on whom we fall
\nWith glittering eyes, slobberingly?
\nDo these ideas–rained upon our minds,
\nLike mud rain in Laredo–elevate
\nConsciousness toward the great
\nHovering supremacy philosophy finds?
\n 
\nOur dead associate, with his dramatic Greek
\nRepresentation of a fictional fight
\nIn which dialogue produced lurid light,
\nUrges our lethargy to think and speak.
\nHave we reason to listen to that urgency
\nOr indeed to reason, whose puritan whine
\nIs likely at times to somewhat undermine
\nIts specious claim of authority?
\n\u201cI\u2019d rather be right with Plato,\u201d someone said.
\nBut what does it matter when we all are dead?
\n 
\nSo now they have sabotaged a Chaucer class\u2026
\n 
\nHo hum. They did the same for Tragedy,
\nAnd who can blame a stupid clown or an ass
\nFor despising Oedipus or Antigone?
\nBrainlessness is not some contagion
\nBut, in our non-Platonic academe,
\nA status quo, the vacuous conversation
\nOf envious imbeciles with bulging eyes agleam.
\nThe best one can do in this fools\u2019 competition
\nIs sometimes to put a stick in the machine
\nAnd briefly delay the supremely ignorant mission
\nCarefully strategized by Satan and the dean.
\n 
\nLet no one dying here view with surprise
\nDung-beetles circling, with burning little eyes.<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n\"On<\/a>
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nR. W. Haynes has taught literature at Texas A&M International University since 1992. His recent interests include the early British sonnet, and he is completing a second book on the Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote (1916-2009). In his poetry, Haynes seeks to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without sounding any more dissonant notes than he has to. In fiction, he works toward grasping that part of the past which made its mark on his generation. He enjoys teaching drama, especially the Greeks, Ibsen, and Shakespeare, and he devoutly hopes for a stunning literary Renaissance in South Texas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 
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\nwww.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes<\/a><\/strong>
\n 
\nrobin@artvilla.com<\/a><\/strong>
\n editor@artvilla.com<\/a><\/strong>
\n 
\nKey of Mist. Guadalupe Grande.Translated.Amparo Arr\u00f3spide.Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a><\/strong>
\n 
\n goodreads.com\/author\/show\/Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.aquillrelle.com\/authorrobin.htm<\/a><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a>
\nwww.lulu.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.amazon.com\/author\/robinouzmanhislop<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  A fat old parrot\u2019s fine impersonation Of a dean, on YouTube, set our friend a laughing Which he couldn\u2019t stop. It turned to coughing, And he died, sort of happy, at his station.   We found in his desk, stashed carelessly, An ancient manuscript he was translating From Sicilian Greek, a tragedy dating From … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[366,401,43,226],"tags":[18,136,738],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}