Book Critic

HERE’S Peddigrew Donk’s astute review
Of the best-selling novel, View Halloo.
Peddigrew opens his sharp critique
With a neat quotation from the Greek,
Which leads him to mention G. B. Shaw,
Robinson Jeffers, and Mendel’s Law.
He pauses briefly to fondle the name
Of a Russian writer of minor fame
And refer to Mr. Woollcott as Alec.
Then, gushing an idiom pseudo-Gallic
And swept by a tide of sentiment, he
Mourns for the Paris of nineteen-twenty.
By way of conclusion the learned reviewer
Remarks with a sigh that literature
Perished with Dreiser. And Peddigrew
Is done with reviewing View Halloo
In an elegant essay that proves our pundit
Is ever so clever and most recondite,
And only one issue remains in doubt:
Just what is View Halloo about?