No!

.

Dear Everybody:

Brevity is the soul of wit. So said Shakespeare, or, rather, his character Polonius in Hamlet. To be specific, he said:

This business is well ended. –
My liege, and madam, –to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night is night, and time is time.
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: –your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.

That's pretty funny! Those windy gushes of words smacking up against an austere "But let that go." And you gotta admire how deftly Willy proved the aphorism by negative example.

Now today's poem:

November
By Thomas Hood

No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! –
November!

Great grouse, huh? Try reading it aloud. Terrific stuff when it's November and you're feeling curmudgeonly about it.

But, alas, I told you a lie. The poem is not titled "November" but "No!" And it's almost three times longer than the above version. Common usage has curtailed the verbiage and re-named it. Well, that's posterity for you – a stern editor with a good eye.
Here's the original:

No!
By Thomas Hood

No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day – No sky – no earthly view –
No distance looking blue –
No road – no street – no "t' other side the way" –
No end to any Row –
No indications where the Crescents go –
No top to any steeple –
No recognitions of familiar people –
No courtesies for showing 'em –
No knowing 'em!
To traveling at all – no locomotion,
No inkling of the way – no notion –
No go – by land or ocean –
No mail – no post –
No news from any foreign coas t–
No park–no ring–no afternoon gentility –
No company – no nobility –
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees.
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds.
November!

So didja read it? No, you didn't. You skimmed over it. Thus proving my point: Brevity is the soul of wit.

All best,

Michael

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