PREFACE

    

A CHRISTMAS GREETING TO THE NEW YORKERS

A cat may look at a king, I’m told,

So perhaps a poet may make so bold

As to send a greeting, on Evergreen,

To the staff of her favorite magazine

And hearty as bells in a country steeple

Say “Glad Noel” to the following people:

To Mr. Ross whom of course I’m able

To feature only as myth, as fable,

As an awesome figure I’ll never see,

An editorial deity;

To Mr. Gibbs who with consternation

Surveys my various punctuation;

To Mr. Mosher whom I have yet to

Pay a cherished and certain debt to,

Since he was the first to assure me, sighing,

I might write verse if I kept on trying;

To E. B. White who was one time haughty

Because I envied the Literati,

And would have kept me, I greatly fear,

With “Ivanhoe” and the Young Idear;

To Mr. Thurber, another myth

But one I’m better acquainted with;

And of course to the Lady of my Delight,

The small, superlative Mrs. White.

To them and anyone else I’ve missed

From a somewhat extemporaneous list,

I send my greetings (as note above)

And my ardent, but perfectly proper, love.

May the New Year bring you a lot of things,

Like pictures funny as Little Kings,

And writers writing hilarious stories

And scribes acquainted with Gotham mores,

For Talk of the Town a thousand thoughts

And never a one about Clever Tots,

(And not too many about their mammas);

Light verse poets who know their commas,

Millions and millions of new subscribers,

A host a fans and a dearth of gibers,

No libel actions with which to cope,

Printers infallible as the Pope;

And for Shouts and Murmurs (oh precious store)

One joke that’s never been heard before.

Ladies, gentlemen, all the staff,

Of my Christmas wishes that’s only half.

For you all blessings and none sent thinly

Is the holiday hope of

PHYLLIS McGINLEY (SIGNED)
(1934)