Critical Essay | Critical Review by The Atlantic Monthly

Critical Review by The Atlantic Monthly

SOURCE: “To Keep Your Marriage Brimming,” in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 215, No. 1, January, 1965, p. 127.

In the following review, the critic praises the “oddball rhymes and inveterate good humor” of Marriage Lines.

The competition, the laughable habits, and the cooperation inherent in a marriage of whatever length supply the themes for the Marriage Lines, whose voice of experience, with its oddball rhymes and inveterate good humor, keeps diverting one from the expected with lines like

She goes walking in the Bois With elegant young men who are not moi.

The funniest, cleverest statement of the eternal differences is the poem “I Do, I Will, I Have.” The poet effects a neat surprise in venting his weary complaint at feminine delay in “I'm Sure She Said Six-Thirty,” and his love lyrics to the Over Insured and to husbands who are likely to get “drunk and disordelaise” on...
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