{"id":192,"date":"2020-11-16T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poetry.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2020-11-16T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T06:00:00","slug":"the-compendium-of-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-compendium-of-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Compendium of Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><em>From <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn87093407\/1912-11-16\/ed-1\/seq-8\/\">The Seattle Star, November 16, 1912<\/a><\/em>. By Berton Braley.\n \n\n I bought a cyclopedia\n \u00a0 \u00a0 (Ten volumes, bound in calf).\n Said I, \u201cMy reading\u2019s been too light;\n \u00a0 \u00a0 All froth and useless chaff;\n I\u2019m really ignorant, I\u2019ve been\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Too frivolous, by half!\u201d\n \n Upon the shelf I placed the set\n \u00a0 \u00a0 And gazed on it with pride,\n And I was awed to think how much\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Of wisdom was inside;\n What harvestings of wondrous lore,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 That came from far and wide.\n \n Upon that self-same shelf it stands,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 And it will linger there;\n For, though I studied patiently,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Then wept and tore my hair,\n At last I gave the problem up,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 In anguish and despair.\n \n For every highbrow in the world\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Had writ of various things,\n \u201cOf ships and soap and sealing wax,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 And cabbages and kings.\u201d\n I couldn\u2019t understand a word,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 And still my poor head rings.\n \n They wrote in seven syllables,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 With formulae abstruse;\n They wallowed deep in Delphic words,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Which scared me like the deuce.\n Among their curves and diagrams,\n \u00a0 \u00a0 I muttered, \u201cWhat\u2019s the use?\u201d\n \n From out its shelf that set of books\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Looks down with aspect grand\n And, gazing at it, I remark:\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cIs there no soul at hand\n To write a cyclopedia\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Which folks can understand?\u201d<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> I bought a cyclopedia<br \/>\n     (Ten volumes, bound in calf).<br \/>\n Said I, \u201cMy reading\u2019s been too light;<br \/>\n     All froth and useless chaff;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-seattle-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}