Peter Jeffrey: Two Poems

Style Notes: 1

Bowties are v. big in the USA,

Not so much in the Southern Hemisphere,

Proctologists excepted, who all say

Conventional neckties dangle in their gear.

In Burlington Arcade, and in the Strand

The dudes prefer them to the four-in-hand.

Both FDR and Churchill liked a bow,

Also Carl Jung and Edgar Allan Poe.

Topologically, says a Cambridge guy,

It’s one of many ways to knot a tie.

He says there’s 85, but hell, a bow,

Is surely worth considering, even so.

Peter Jeffrey

Style Notes: 2

Roget says that debonair’s not dapper,

Contrary-wise that dapper’s debonair:

I say dapper means your look’s too studied,

The image of the gay boulevardier.

It’s a smirking chappie in a boater,

Somewhat like Maurice Chevalier.

Never say “You’re dapper”; say “You’re debonair”.

Not a Charlie Chaplin, more a Fred Astaire.

Peter Jeffrey