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Assorted Prose of Updike QUOTES

Assorted Prose of Updike QUOTES

1 " Examples abound: one final one. On the copyright page of his first book, The Works of Max Beerbohm, Max found the imprint

London: JOHN LANE, The Bodley Head
New York: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Beneath it, he wrote in pen:

This plain announcement, nicely read.
Iambically runs.

The effortless a-b-a-b rhyming, the balance of "plain" and "nicely," the need for nicety in pronouncing "Iambically" to scan - this is quintessential light verse, a twitting of the starkest prose into perfect form, a marriage of earth with light, and quite magical. Indeed, were I a high priest of literature, I would have this quatrain made into an amulet and wear it about my neck, for luck.

----John Updike, writing about the poetry of Max Beerbohm "

― John Updike , Assorted Prose of Updike