who ever saw a
dead congressman? yet, he was a
man with a sharp tongue
Adapted from the passage in the poem, John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benét as published in Selected works of Stephen Vincent Benét (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942), where Mr. Benét writes:
Fighting Joe Hooker once
Said with that tart, unbridled tongue of his
That made so many needless enemies,
“Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?”
The phrase
Stings with a needle sharpness, just or not,
But even he was never heard to say,
“Who ever saw a dead congressman?”
And yet, he was a man with a sharp tongue.
At Mr. Twain wrote in Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
I feel like we are on the Titanic and the lifeboats are full of members of Congress who wave back at us as the boats row away.
Discover more from No Haiku For You
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
