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MALVOLIO LOOKS BACK
How did it go so wrong? I started well,
securing employment in a great house.
I worked diligently, learning to quell
my spirits, my own views, finding the nous
to flatter without detection, to be
discreet, dependable, in every task.
I rose. How I rose! until it was me
(or do I mean I?) who bore the steward’s staff.
Then how I failed myself: that yellow hose
(cross-gartered!); the fancy that my lady
loved me; the smiles; the conceit to suppose
that she would thrust some greatness upon me!
The hours would pass so sluggishly these days,
but for the new tobacco … sonnets … plays …
.
© John Stevens 2011
.The illustration is taken from Wikipedia at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvolio
Poetry from John Looker 
such empathy
so sad !
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By: j dub on 27 May, 2011
at 22:58
You have a lovely, gentle sense of humour John.
This one left me smiling
David
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By: belfastdavid on 29 May, 2011
at 19:21
So, John, now that I’ve finished reading Lear,
you want me to get started on Twelfth Night.
Malvolio, is it? You know, I fear
I’ve never read the play. Try as I might
I can’t recall the plot. Still, a sonnet
on it! Sharp. Sly. I tend to end my lines
with a word like ‘tergiversate’—darn it—
with which only ‘masturbate’ truly rhymes—
a metaphor which poetry can do
without. (There’s ‘stand and wait’, but that’s been done.)
So, bravo. (You could have said ‘to try / to
be dependable’, but it ruins the fun.)
A nifty little poem. ( ‘House’ rhymes with ‘nous’?
but, no—I’ll be quiet as…a moose.)
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By: extrasimile on 29 May, 2011
at 22:11
Thanks guys. It’s a slight piece and I’m not sure why I wrote it now – it took shape on and off over many months. I see it as rueful. Sad but funny. (Certainly funnier than King Lear anyway!)
Those rhymes Jim: it all depends on regional accent I suppose. On this side of the Atlantic and to my south-east England ear ‘house’ and ‘nous’ are an exact rhyme; to a northern Englishman they would also rhyme with ‘moose’. Heaven knows what they sound like to a northern Irishman living in Yorkshire …
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By: John Stevens on 30 May, 2011
at 09:37
Yes, I did think it was a question of differing pronunciations—but I couldn’t resist having a little fun with it. Truth is, I don’t think it a slight poem at all. Stately, clever, fun, slightly rueful, and a very nice use of words. Partaking in the joy of language…
I did trust you to realize I was fooling around.
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By: extrasimile on 30 May, 2011
at 10:50
Sorry Jim. I was a bit dense there! (Rather like Malvolio, on reflection!)
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By: John Stevens on 30 May, 2011
at 16:32
I think The Bard himself would have to smile if he read this. Well done!
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By: Shirley Alexander on 30 May, 2011
at 20:24
Bravo, John – beautifully constructed, wistful and funny; a very sympathetic and enjoyable piece about a character arguably more sinned against than sinning. A super sonnet.
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By: gonecycling on 6 June, 2011
at 12:04
Thanks Nick. I felt very sympathetic to poor old Malvolio!
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By: John Stevens on 6 June, 2011
at 18:49
yay! Im happy to see a new poem…
“securing employment in a great house”
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By: Evelyn on 9 June, 2011
at 19:20
I’ve been challenged twice to write a sonnet and I sort of flayed around like a toddler not allowed any biscuits all the while I wrote it. Your seems so flawless and flowing – I’m in awe and congrats on seeing those months work come to fruition.
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By: Narnie on 10 June, 2011
at 22:34
I like the picture you paint of yourself flaying like a toddler etc … I don’t believe a word of it of course.
But thank you – and thanks, Evelyn, to you too.
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By: John Stevens on 13 June, 2011
at 09:06
Is there no form that you have not mastered? The humor in this is splendirifous as you rise in the great house to steward, lolling in all the joys of tobacco, sonnets, and plays.
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By: Thomas Davis on 3 December, 2011
at 04:07
Thank you, you’re very kind. I feel like Malvolio at times!
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By: John Stevens on 5 December, 2011
at 10:04
A particularly memorable read. I enjoyed the encounter with ‘nous’ which I had to look up in my Webster tome. I agree Shakespeare would have been proud!
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By: jstansfeld on 16 May, 2016
at 15:08
So glad you enjoyed it! A Webster’s is definitely for people with nous!
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By: John Looker on 16 May, 2016
at 17:22