After Putting a Poetry
Anthology in a Blender
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
No man is an island, entire of itself.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
To err is human; to forgive, divine.
To see a world in a grain of sand.
I met a traveler from an antique land.
About suffering they were never wrong.
If music be the food of love, play on.
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Tony Peyser’s poems are regularly in Lighten Up Online, the British journal of comic verse. In 2024, he was a semifinalist in the Philadelphia Stories’ National Prize in Poetry and was also long-listed for the 2024 Kingfisher Poetry Prize. In 2025, he was a finalist in New Millennium’s “America, One Year From Now” contest and received a special mention in the 2025 Whispering Wisdom competition. He lived in Altadena, CA until losing his home in the 2025 Eaton Canyon Fire and has since moved to Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.
An entertainng and rewarding poem. Thank you, Tony! I suspect more poems should be put in blenders.
A fun poem to lighten up a blue Monday. Glad to see that in the face of adversity you can still see the funny side of life – I’m a Lighten Upper, too.
Tony, you indeed put some familiar phrases into the blender and amplified the results. After reading your bio, I felt the final line of learning where you have to go was a reflection of your own move from California to New Jersey.
A poem like this used to be be called a “cento,” or a patched quilt of various lines from other poets. This one is a real mix!
A poet pen pal in England told me what a cento was, clearing guessing I didn’t have a clue. I’m just as impressed you knew it as well, Joseph.
I just love this clever and highly entertaining poem. The pairings are delightful, especially: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” which had me laughing out loud with the image it conjured. It makes me want to reach for a peach and dare to eat it for lunch. Thank you!
I may just go get a peach at my local store and join you, Susan.
Love the contrast between Donne and Whitman–or should we say England and America? Altadena used to be a pleasant village under the oaks, even if closely packed recently. I know nothing of Whitehouse Station, but see that it has a small population. Hope you’ve found an island for yourself within a village community!
I hope the word “pleasant” will someday apply again to Altadena. Especially sad since in recent years it was really blossoming. Whitehouse is much smaller but front lawns are oddly massive.
Quite a change but rather charming. As are lots of deer as neighbors.
I tried to volunteer in the effort to save art tiles from houses that had lost everything except the fireplace. They could have been one of a few pleasant touches to survive, but in the extremely limited time before demolition, there was desperate need only for professional plasterers. I’m glad, though, there were plenty of careful packers for the project to benefit whole neighborhoods.
This is such a great idea! Thanks for putting a smile on my face. I agree with Jared Carter that we need more anthologies put into blenders. I especially love: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” I love Prufrock’s puncturing of Yeat’s grandiosity. Very enjoyable!
A chicken in every pot.
A car in every garage.
A poetry anthology in every blender.
(That about covers it.)
I’m laughing out loud at this cleverness! Like Margaret, I love the ironic contrast between Donne and Whitman. Also, the grain of sand paired with Ozymandius’ antique land. Excellently done!
Cynthia, what can I say?
I had good material to work with.
Actually … the best.
So great, Tony!
I recognized many, but not all, these wonderful lines. So I ran it through Perplexity to identify them. Tell me if they’re all correct:
“I have been one acquainted with the night.” — “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” — “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas
“No man is an island, entire of itself.” — Meditation XVII by John Donne
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” — “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” — “The Second Coming” by W. B. Yeats
“I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” — “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot
“If you can meet with triumph and disaster,” — “If—” by Rudyard Kipling
“The art of losing isn’t hard to master.” — “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
“Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.” — “Eloisa to Abelard” by Alexander Pope
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” — “An Essay on Criticism” by Alexander Pope
“To see a world in a grain of sand.” — “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake
“I met a traveler from an antique land.” — “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
“About suffering they were never wrong.” — “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden
“If music be the food of love, play on.” — Twelfth Night, Act I Scene 1 by William Shakespeare
“In Flanders fields, the poppies blow.” — “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae
“I learn by going where I have to go.” — “The Waking” by Theodore Roethke
I know this couldn’t have been easy… really great job!
Thanks, Mike. This was tricky to do. I knew I could find great lines that rhymed but they also had to make sense. Dorothy Parker said poems needed truth in them or else they were just “calisthenics with words.”
Oh how clever! I enjoyed trying to recognize each line; I must admit the challenge has me busy.
Very clever pairings, Tony; and I appreciate Mike’s citations for the lines.
Full disclosure, Cheryl: I didn’t realize I’d used
an Alexander Pope poem, let alone two.
What fun! There is more going on here than meets the eye. Assembling and deftly pairing the snippets must have taken a lot of work.
Thanks for this novel and entertaining poem.