Thoughts about the Person from Porlock

Coleridge received the Person from Porlock

And ever after called him a curse,

Then why did he hurry to let him in?

He could have hid in the house.

It was not right of Coleridge in fact it was wrong

(But often we all do wrong)

As the truth is I think he was already stuck

With Kubla Khan.

He was weeping and wailing : I am finished, finished,

I shall never write another word of it,

When along comes the Person from Porlock

And takes the blame for it.

It was not right, it was wrong,

But often we all do wrong.

                *

May we inquire the name of the Person from Porlock?

Why, Porson, didn’t you know?

He lived at the bottom of Porlock Hill

So had a long way to go,

He wasn’t much in the social sense

Though his grandmother was a Warlock,

One of the Rutlandshire ones I fancy

And nothing to do with Porlock,

And he lived at the bottom of the hill as I said

And had a cat named Flo,

And had a cat named Flo.

                *

I long for the Person from Porlock

To bring my thoughts to an end,

I am becoming impatient to see him

I think of him as a friend,

Often I look out of the window

Often I run to the gate

I think, He will come this evening,

I think it is rather late.

I am hungry to be interrupted

For ever and ever amen

O Person from Porlock come quickly

And bring my thoughts to an end.

                *

I felicitate the people who have a Person from Porlock

To break up everything and throw it away

Because then there will be nothing to keep them

And they need not stay.

                *

Why do they grumble so much?

He comes like a benison

They should be glad he has not forgotten them

They might have had to go on.

                *

These thoughts are depressing I know. They are depressing,

I wish I was more cheerful, it is more pleasant,

Also it is a duty, we should smile as well as submitting

To the purpose of One Above who is experimenting

With various mixtures of human character which goes best,

All is interesting for him it is exciting, but not for us.

There I go again. Smile, smile, and get some work to do

Then you will be practically unconscious without positively

      having to go.

                            -- Stevie Smith

Please join us in a discussion of this poem with poet Kay Ryan

Friday, November 30th, 4:30pm, Florence Moore Main Lounge