Essay / Misc.

Updike Poke at Feckless Profs

From John Updike’s The Carpentered Hen, published 1958.

Professor Varder handles Dante
With wry respect; while one can see
It’s all a lie, one must admit
The “beauty” of the “imagery.”

Professor Varder slyly smiles,
Describing Hegel as a “sage;”
But still, the man has value—he
Reflects the “temper” of his “age.”

Montaigne, Tom Paine, St. Augustine:
Although their notions came to naught,
They still are “crucial figures” in
The “pageantry” of “Western thought.”

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