Phyllis McGinley's "Lament for a Wavering Viewpoint"
The Daily Poem
Goldberry Studios
4.6 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2025
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Phyllis McGinley (March 21, 1905 – February 22, 1978) was an American author of children's books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961.
McGinley enjoyed a wide readership in her lifetime, publishing her work in newspapers and women's magazines such as the Ladies Home Journal, as well as in literary periodicals, including The New Yorker, The Saturday Review and The Atlantic. She also held nearly a dozen honorary degrees – "including one from the stronghold of strictly masculine pride, Dartmouth College" (from the dust jacket of Sixpence in Her Shoe (copy 1964)). Time Magazine featured McGinley on its cover on June 18, 1965.
-bio via Wikipedia
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. |
| 0:08.1 | I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Friday, January 31st, 2025. |
| 0:13.3 | Today's poem is by Phyllis McGinley, born 1905 and died in 1978. |
| 0:19.1 | She was an American writer of children's books and poetry, particularly |
| 0:24.3 | Lightverse. In fact, it was for a collection of Lightverse that she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in |
| 0:30.0 | 1961. The poem is called Lament for a Wavering Viewpoint. And while the poem is clearly light verse, it does what |
| 0:41.3 | some of the best light verse does, which is take the opportunity once it has you laughing or chuckling |
| 0:47.6 | to touch ever so lightly on some kind of serious issue. So here we have politics and particularly |
| 0:58.2 | the polarizing nature of bipartisan politics and some good fun, some good laughter is |
| 1:06.3 | had at the expense of party politics and the people who take one side or one position and adopt, |
| 1:16.3 | perhaps uncritically, a whole host of particular convictions that sort of go along with that |
| 1:22.9 | position as a package deal. And here, the speaker of the poem is ironically wringing their hands and lamenting |
| 1:32.3 | that they can't enjoy the freedom and the sound sleeping at night that comes along |
| 1:40.2 | with that kind of behavior, but rather have to keep an open mind and therefore are continually |
| 1:47.1 | tormented by the notion that to be responsible or to do their duty, they must continue to |
| 1:52.7 | think about things. And while there's a joking suggestion that the person of wavering viewpoint |
| 1:59.4 | is really someone who is wishy-washy or non-committal. |
| 2:04.5 | There is a semi-serious moment in the second stanza when the speaker brings up the possibility |
| 2:10.9 | that every question does not have but one single answer, at least not one that can be gotten cheaply and without some |
| 2:21.5 | careful consideration. Here is, lament for a wavering viewpoint. I want to be a Tory, and would the |
| 2:32.4 | Tories stand, elect and bound for glory, with a proud, |
| 2:36.9 | congenial band. Or, in the leftist hallways, I gladly would abide, but from my youth I always |
... |
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