If I could offer another of my favorites, his contract with Mrs. T.K. Beecher, memorializing their bet over the existence of heaven:
  
 
If you prove right and I prove wrong,
            A million years from now,
In language plain and frank and strong
            My error I'll avow
                        To your dear waking face
 
If I prove right, by God His grace,
            Full sorry I shall be,
For in that solitude no trace
            There'll be of you and me.
 
A million years, O patient stone,
            You've waited for this message.
Deliver it a million hence;
            (Survivor pays expressage.)

Published in _Munsey's Magazine_ in 1895.

GC

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jerry Vorpahl
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 8:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Poetry by Mark Twain

Camfield does a nice job exploring Twain's Poetry in The Oxford
Companion, including  the most "Twainian" of all poems, "Love Song."
First verse:

I ask not, "Is thy hope still sure,
They love still warm, thy faith secure."
I ask not, "Dream'st though still of me? -
Long'st always to fly to me? -
Ah, no - but as the sun includeth all
The good gifts of the Giver,
I sum all these in asking thee,
"Oh Sweetheart, how's your liver?"


JERRY VORPAHL
Sacramento



On Apr 14, 2010, at 7:44 AM, Harris, Susan Kumin wrote:

Scott's book has Twain's poem after Jose Rizal, "My Last Thought." I =
think it's the best of his efforts at poetry, and because it's about
the =
U.S. and imperialism--and because it shows that Twain read at least
one =
translation of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere--there's a lot of meat there
for =
a student project, if that's what you are looking for.  Kevin
Bochynski  =
was kind enough to alert me to it through this forum last year, and
I'm =
really grateful.  It deserves more attention than it's been given. =20
=20
I'm going to be giving a short presentation on it at ALA.  --skh
=20
Susan K. Harris
Hall Professor of American Literature & Culture
Department of English
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66042

________________________________

From: Mark Twain Forum on behalf of Alan Gribben
Sent: Wed 4/14/2010 9:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Poetry by Mark Twain



John,

If you can obtain a copy of Arthur L. Scott's ON THE POETRY OF MARK =
TWAIN, =3D
WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS VERSE (Urbana:  U of Illinois P, 1966), this =
would=3D
  be a good starting-point for choosing a poem.

Regards,
Alan Gribben


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John =
Greenman
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Poem by Mark Twain

Librivox.org, in its desire to commemorate Mark Twain, asks:

Did he write a poem that could be used as a weekly poetry project?


Anyone have a suggestion?

-John