Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Column 166

Fried Beauty

Intro by Ted Kooser
06.04.2008

Texas poet R. S. Gwynn is a mas­ter of the light touch. Here he picks up on Ger­ard Man­ley Hop­kins’ son­net Pied Beau­ty,” which many of you will remem­ber from school, and offers us a pic­nic instead of a ser­mon. I hope you enjoy the feast! 

Fried Beauty

Glory be to God for breaded things—
   Catfish, steak finger, pork chop, chicken thigh,
         Sliced green tomatoes, pots full to the brim
With french fries, fritters, life-float onion rings,
    Hushpuppies, okra golden to the eye,
            That in all oils, corn or canola, swim

Toward mastication’s maw (O molared mouth!);
    Whatever browns, is dumped to drain and dry
             On paper towels’ sleek translucent scrim,
These greasy, battered bounties of the South:
                            Eat them.

Share this column

Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2005 by R. S. Gwynn, whose most recent book of poetry is No Word of Farewell: Poems 1970-2000, Story Line Press, 2001. Poem reprinted from Light: A Quarterly of Light Verse, No. 50, Autumn, 2005, by permission of R. S. Gwynn. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.