Sorry about this, but I got into a discussion about a poem which starts something along the lines of - I do not like the human race I do not like it's silly face I thought I had a copy of it somewhere - I certainly recognised it when my friend quoted it, but it is now proving impossible to track down. Please help?

-- Christina MacLean (christina@cmaclea2.demon.co.uk), January 29, 2000

Answers

Hi Jean,

I eventually tracked the poem down in an old book my parents used to own - The Faber Book of Comic Verse, edited by Michael Brooks. It travels from fifteenth century to T.S. Elliot, by way of people like Robert Burns, Lewis Carroll, Hilaire Belloc (whom I rather fancied might be responsible for 'I wish I liked...'), and many others. It must have been from this book that I remember reading the poem when I was a child. It is a wonderful collection from the pleasantly amusing to the wickedly sharp. It's curious that a query like this has re-awakened an interest in poetry that has been overlooked for years, I will try & track down your recommended book 'The Weekend'. Many thanks again - I tried to contact you at dezane@hotmail.com, but got through to someone completely different??

Christina.

-- Christina MacLean (christina@cmaclea2.demon.co.uk), February 13, 2000.

Thanks Christina. I found it but didn't have a chance to get back on here until today. I was curious as to where you found it. I wanted to tell you about this wonderful book printed in England, called The Weekend. It's full of wonderful poetry and all sorts of other things you didn't know you wanted to know, until you read the book. It has the Sir Walter Raleigh poem listed on the topic Hate poems.

-- Jean Scott (dezane@hotmail.com), February 13, 2000.

Thanks to Jean's response, I have been able to track this poem down.

It was indeed Walter Raleigh;

THE WISHES OF AN ELDERLY MAN

(At a garden-party, June 1914)

I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

WALTER RALEIGH

Many Thanks.

-- Christina MacLean (christina@cmaclea2.demon.co.uk), February 06, 2000.

Didn't Sir Walter Raleigh make a statement like that? I'm looking, will get back to you later if I find anything.

-- Jean Scott (dezane@hotmail.com), February 05, 2000.