For S.C., S.S., and all the folks at Bedford/St.Martin’s
Who (since 1973), repeatedly, gave life to us.
[With obvious apologies]
One might compare you to a Summer’s day;
But you’ve aged now, become less temperate—
Rough, being thirty-six, to make your way
Through vicious seasons, threatening brittle fate!
Sometimes good sales make boardroom faces shine—
But oft they fade to dark when sales look dim.
And even brilliant texts sometime decline—
By changing taste and politics untrimmed.
But still, we birthed you, and that love won’t fade,
Nor will we ever dim the pride we owe
To you, the now-grown entity we made—
New-parent burnished—shining with fresh glow!
While we still breathe and see, yearn to assess—
We plead for copies we’ll adore, caress.
(10/23/09)
[Insider lament! The 10th edition of our textbook, Literature, The Human Experience, was due to appear 10/14/09—but has not yet reached us]. Most of you will perceive Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 underlying this profanation.]