The Old Man from Poughkeepsie
Only, of course, the poet doesn’t refer to him as an old man. “There was an Old Poop from Poughkeepsie” is an example, perhaps, of just why Updike’s poetry has never received the critical attention that his novels and short stories. It is form of light verse familiar to almost everyone as a limerick. And it is about an old fellow the funnily-named city in New York who drinks more than just Schweppes.
Emily, Teddy and Essie
“To Two of my Characters” features characters that are also characters in Updike’s novel In the Beauty of the Lilies. Essie is the beautiful daughter of Teddy and Emily who will grow up to briefly become a major movie star.
John Updike
Although not mentioned himself by name, it is clear from the descriptions of the speaker’s eyebrows that this “To a Former Mistress, Now Dead” is intended to be taken as autobiographical, whether it actually is or not. The relationship with the now-dead mistress obviously took place many years before back when his eyebrows were reddish-brown without any gray and back when his complaints about his sexual potency was a compliment.
M. Anantanarayanan
In 1961 an attorney in Indian (and later Chief Justice of the Madras State) published a novel titled The Silver Pilgrimage which was fortunate enough to receive positive notice from the New York Times. Updike in turn took notice of the review and became captivated less by the novel itself than by the author’s name. “I Missed His Book, but I Read His Name” is a playful bit of verse that, unfortunately, too many people took as mean-spirited.
V.B. Wigglesworth
The title of the poem featuring this character suggests that he is to be compared to a certain familiar nursery rhyme character. “V.B. Nimble, V.B Quick” tells Wigglesworth’s story of his job working in some sort of scientific laboratory involving dipping spiders into alkaline, driving rats to self-destruction by ringing a bell and ordering jellyfish to spawn. It is a science fiction horror movie in verse but without a satisfying climax to make us all feel better. Instead, Wigglesworth just makes sure he has left the lab before one o’clock so that he can come back again tomorrow and pursue his abominations anew the next day when wakes up at noon.
