How to Become Famous

CHAPTER 5

“Stolen, Stolen Be Your Apples”

Have you heard of Leigh Hunt? I was an English major in college, but I confess that until recently, I had not. A friend drew my attention to him. Here’s his poem “Jenny Kiss’d Me”:

Jenny kiss’d me when we met,

Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

Sweets into your list, put that in!

Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,

Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,

Say I’m growing old, but add,

Jenny kiss’d me.1

It’s good, isn’t it? It is funny and high-spirited, and it says something true about memory, love, and romance. You might be weary and sad, and you might be sick and poor and old, but if Jenny kissed you, well then. Here’s another poem by Hunt, more complicated and a bit edgier: ...