I think Wordsworth was damn lucky that when he saw ‘The Solitary Reaper’ she was singing in the fresh air of an open field. He could naturally wax eloquently and lyrically.
In a somewhat similar situation, I was however not so fortunate. The space was confined and the air ‘not so fresh’. I could therefore write only thus:
The Flatutory Beeper
Behold her, alone in the lift
Me and this elegant lass
Oh no! It’s rumbling by itself
Hold ! Or it’ll gently pass.
Her nose twitches and finds the strain
Of noxious and wafting methane.
Awkward silence knew no bound
Skies then opened with the sound.
The winds escaped as is their wont
With lengthy roll of drumming bands
To freedom from their colon-ial haunt
And gastro-enteric glands.
A roar so thundering ne’er was heard
Like a lion from his sleep is stirred.
She just laughed to put me at ease
Smiling wide as Euphrates.
The lift slowed. The floor bell rang.
My plight was near it’s ending.
As she moved towards the door
I felt my belly again distending.
I stiffened, motionless and still
Like a leopard stalks its kill.
The crunching of my guts I bore
Till the lift had crossed her floor.
— Anuj
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Just in case you want to read Wordsworth’s original poem here it is
The Solitary Reaper
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chant
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
- William Wordsworth
Hilarious brother. The vacant distant look a person gives especially when releasing some noxious fumes from the rear end in a crowded lift...
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