The highs and lows of verse (and I love 'em both)

Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps

I was thinking about these lines when I looked at myself in the mirror this morning thereby establishing that I did look morose and that I quote Disney now instead of poetry. I quickly rethought that. And what is wrong, pray, in quoting Beauty and the beast. It was written by Howard Ashman who is a good lyricist. And lyrics are functional bits and pieces, overshadowed by their more glamorous cousins, poetry. Yet when you're walking by yourself, its not often poetry which comes to us, but more some fitting piece of 'lyricry'. It must be another chalked up to the triumph of teamwork, for where would lyrics be without the music. So, Howard Ashman and Alan Menkel, you Disney lie-abouts you, stand up and take a bow. I think you guys did a great job. I'll be humming your stuff for a while.

And now, to lift me out of them dumps, here's Walt Whitman with "leaves of grass"
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg
of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels

The first line gets me going, it really does. Do you feel how large and enormous its meaning is? It's staggering and dizzyingly numbing. What fabulous splendour could repay the richness of the words strung together so?