Shooting the Canon

By Diane Menna

Step into the whimsical and satirical world of Shooting The Canon: A Collection of Recycled Classic Poetry by Diane Menna. This unique anthology brings new life to beloved classic poems with witty reinterpretations and contemporary twists. From playful musings on modern-day dilemmas to sharp political commentary, Menna's verses offer a ref

• Language: English
• Publisher: NY Book Publishers
• Release date: Jun 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798330234837

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Shooting The Canon: A Collection of Recycled Classic Poetry

By diane menna

Copyright © Year 2024

All Rights Reserved

About the Author

Diane Menna who retired a few years ago, and taught at the City University of New York for over 35 years. As a joke, since she now had the time, she rewrote John Donne's Death Be Not Proud, satirizing the Covid epidemic for some colleague friends, and discovered she enjoyed the literary exercise. Quickly, she realized she had over 65 poems reimagining classic poems, which she calls Recycled Poetry. Some contain political comments, some satirize human foibles, and some are just silly fun. This collection is some of these poems for Lit majors everywhere who might enjoy them. She claims she is trying to stop.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my friend and editor Marci Goodman, and I would like to thank Joyce Gallagher and Wendy Schribner for their feedback and encouragement. I also want to offer thanks and apologies to the great (and not-so-great) poets who wrote English language poetry that has reverberated in the minds of Lit majors everywhere across the ages.

For Lit majors everywhere

How Do I Love Belles Lettres? In These Ways

Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

I love thee for the true and holy height

You taught my soul to reach when in your sight.

For Donne’s love logic, Shakespeare’s ideal grace.

I love thee as Frost wrote of every day’s

Common New England need in broad daylight.

I love thee as shy Dickinson chose right,

Renounced the world while yearning for its praise.

I love thee with the passion Whitman used

To worship body with a childhood’s faith.

I love thee with the power Hopkins lets loose

As his word-sounds explode with every breath.

I loved thee from the first—and so can’t choose,

I shall but love thee even unto death. 

The Passionate Podcaster to His Love

Apologies to Christopher Marlowe

Come fall for me and be my love,

And we will cray cray theories prove,

That gun-toters in the fields,

And each Three Percenter yields.

And we will drink