{"id":6215,"date":"2010-10-06T15:49:46","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T19:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=6215"},"modified":"2010-10-06T15:49:46","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T19:49:46","slug":"a-poem-for-popeye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=6215","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for Popeye"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers of E.C. Segar will know the characters Alice the Goon and George W. Geezil, who shared the stage of Thimble Theatre with stars like Popeye and Olive Oyl. In his collection Dove Legend<\/a> (Porcupine’s Quill, 2001), the great Canadian poet Richard Outram wrote an unexpected love poem devoted to the pair. Here is Outram’s “Diapason in Thimble Theatre” (with commentary after the poem).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some marriages, after Byzantine negotiations, are arranged.<\/p>\n

Some poleaxed lovers swear their trothplight on the spot.<\/p>\n

Some marriages, so we are informed, are made in Heaven.<\/p>\n

And some marriages, rather evidently are not.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

But surely one of the least congruous of nuptials<\/p>\n

ever to have been solemnized under the blanched moon<\/p>\n

was the decorous matrimony of George Weintraub Geezil<\/p>\n

widower, to the sometime parish spinster, Alice the Goon.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

History does not record the details of their courtship.<\/p>\n

There are those who conjectre, that Geezil took off his hat<\/p>\n

and knelt, when he proposed. On the other hand, many<\/p>\n

are prepared to believe in bizarreries, but not that.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The ceremony itself is a matter of vestry record.<\/p>\n

The bride was given away by Ludwig Wittgenstin.<\/p>\n

A tearful Olive Oil was her bridesmaid. Rough-house hosted<\/p>\n

the saturnalian reception. From Cana came the wine.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Fie! A plague upon you, who would, prurient, follow after<\/p>\n

the radiant couple, beyond the closed bridal-chamber door!<\/p>\n

Did Geezil cradle Alice, or Alice Geezil? O whatever rapture<\/p>\n

connubial was theirs is privy, and secret evermore.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

And was their union steadfast as the constellations?<\/p>\n

Or fraught with discord? Again, history does not relate:<\/p>\n

and not just because Elzie Crisler Segar put aside his pen<\/p>\n

to give up the ghost, in nineteen thirty-eight.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Clio belaboured does not utter in these matters.<\/p>\n

Inquire of Hymen, or Erato, as every schoolboy knows,<\/p>\n

on love’s ingenious carnalities but none shall tell<\/p>\n

the stricken mysteries of Souls that juxtapose.<\/p>\n

A few notes:<\/p>\n

1. Richard Outram (1930-2005) was arguably one of\u00a0the greatest poet Canada has produced so if you like this poem, I’d suggest picking up his other books.<\/p>\n

2. Ludwig Wittgenstein as far as I know never appeared in Thimble Theatre but otherwise the characters are all from Segar’s strip. I think the middle name given to Geezil (Weintraub) was an Outram invention. I haven’t read Segar in a few years, but I don’t think Geezil and Alice the Goon ever married in the strip, although Segar did like to create incongruous romances (Wimpy with the Sea Hag, or for that matter Popeye and Olive Oyl).<\/p>\n

3. Hymen is the Greek God of weddings and the bridal hymn, although there is an obvious biological pun there. Erato is one of the muses.<\/p>\n

4. There are many great poets of romance but relatively few poets of marriage. Married life, the stricken mystery of Souls that juxtapose, was Outram’s great subject, the theme he returned to again and again. As in this poem, he often reflected on how unevenly matched couple’s managed to build a life together and find happiness.<\/p>\n

5. Outram was married to the painter and wood engraver Barbara Howard, who died in unexpectedly in 2002. After her death, Outram went into a state of profound depression. He killed himself in early 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers of E.C. Segar will know the characters Alice the Goon and George W. Geezil, who shared the stage of Thimble Theatre with stars like Popeye and Olive Oyl. In his collection Dove Legend (Porcupine’s Quill, 2001), the great Canadian poet Richard Outram wrote an unexpected love poem devoted to the pair. Here is Outram’s “Diapason in Thimble Theatre” (with commentary after the poem).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[385,853,1105],"class_list":["post-6215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-segar","tag-marriage","tag-richard-outram"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}