Classic Poem

Mister Morton Dauwen Zabel he dead
Morton Dauwen Zabel trochaic conveyor belt
& mass production line of flowery platitudes breeding upon platitudes platitudes platitude warp & platitude woof & platitudes as far as the human eye can see

platitudes about T. S. Eliot
platitudes about Ezra Pound
platitudes about W. B. Yeats
platitudes about W. H. Auden
platitudes about Hart Crane
platitudes about Marianne Moore
platitudes about Wallace Stevens
platitudes about William Carlos Williams
platitudes about Robert Frost
platitudes about E. A. Robinson
platitudes about Robert Bridges
platitudes about G. M. Hopkins
& platitudes about platitudes about Thomas Hardy & Ernest Hemingway & Joseph Conrad & Charles Dickens

platitudes up on top of platitudes
granddaddy platitudes to end all platitudes
two platitudes constituting one synoptic platitude
ladders of platitudes & pyramids of platitudes
platitudes on platitudes after platitudes in platitudes
platitudes in Portuguese & platitudes in mannered American English

pair of clandestine platitudes making the platitude with two backs
the platitude of the senior class in the hot house out back making the cheerleading platitude next door
begetting baby platitudes arrayed in regimented generations
that flew around the room mewing like bats

thick specs minimized the pupils into idiot points of ignorance lit only by momentary gleams of dedicated priggery
& him an editor & critic & teacher of others
& doctor of philosophy & full professor

fullest

But ah well & what the Hell
nil nisi bonum de the dead

let's let it go at that