Introducing Irony (Version 2)

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">CONDENSED NOVEL</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><div class="drop-cap3">SHUN the abundant paragraphs</div> </div> <div class="verse">With which a novelist interviews shades</div> <div class="verse">Of physical appearance in one man,</div> <div class="verse">And regard the body of Alvin Spar</div> <div class="verse">Curtained by more aristocratic words.</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Alvin Spar in adolescence</div> <div class="verse">Was neither slim nor rotund,</div> <div class="verse">But slightly aware of future corpulence.</div> <div class="verse">The face that Aristotle may have had</div> <div class="verse">Was interfering, bit by bit,</div> <div class="verse">With an outer face of pouting curves.</div> <div class="verse">Alvin Spar in youth</div> <div class="verse">Held half of the face that Aristotle</div> <div class="verse">May have had, and the pungent directness</div> <div class="verse">Of a stable-boy.</div> <div class="verse">Alvin Spar in middle age</div> <div class="verse">Had the face that Aristotle</div> <div class="verse">May have had&mdash;a large austerity</div> <div class="verse">Disputing the bloom of well-selected emotions.</div> <div class="verse">Straight nose, thick lips, low forehead</div> <div class="verse">Were apprentices to the austerity</div> <div class="verse">That often stepped beyond them.</div> <div class="verse">Alvin Spar in old age</div> <div class="verse">Had drawn the wrinkled bed-quilts</div> <div class="verse">Over the face that Aristotle</div> <div class="verse">May have had, but his eyes peered out,</div> <div class="verse">Fighting with sleep.&#8221;</div> <div class="verse">Shuffle the cards on which I have written</div> <div class="verse">Alvin Spar&#8217;s changes in physical appearance,</div> <div class="verse">And deal them out to the various players.</div> <div class="verse">Accident first, then the qualities of the players&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">These two will struggle to dominate</div> <div class="verse">The movements of the plot.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">The plot of this novel will ascend</div> <div class="verse">In twenty lines and escape</div> <div class="verse">The honoured adulteration so dear to men.</div> <div class="verse">&#8220;Alvin Spar loved a woman</div> <div class="verse">Who poured acid on his slumber</div> <div class="verse">By showing him the different fools within him.</div> <div class="verse">Sincerely longing for wisdom</div> <div class="verse">He married her, while she desired</div> <div class="verse">A pupil whom she could lazily beat.</div> <div class="verse">She convinced him that emotions</div> <div class="verse">Were simply periods of indecision</div> <div class="verse">Within the mind, and with emphasis</div> <div class="verse">He walked to another woman.</div> <div class="verse">The second woman loved him,</div> <div class="verse">But she was merely to him</div> <div class="verse">Clay for mental sculpture.</div> <div class="verse">She killed herself, believing</div> <div class="verse">That he might become to her in death</div> <div class="verse">A figure less remote and careful.</div> <div class="verse">He forgot her in an hour</div> <div class="verse">And used the rest of his life</div> <div class="verse">In finding women over whom he could tower....</div> <div class="verse">He died while madly straying over his heights.&#8221;</div> <div class="verse">The incidental people, chatter, and background?</div> <div class="verse">You will find them between</div> <div class="verse">Pages one and four-hundred</div> <div class="verse">Of the latest bulk in prose.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />