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About the author: Nick Ascroft was born in Oamaru but now lives and works in Wellington. An editor by trade, a linguist by training, and a competitive Scrabble player by choice, he is the author of several collections of poetry and a novel, As Long As Rain. In 2003 he was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship. In brief: The poem’s title is the reader’s first clue that Ascroft is riffing off the well-known Oscar Wilde quote, “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.” However, the “wit” of the original is swapped out for “whist”, a popular card game widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. The poem itself starts to play out like a game, as each line and stanza seeks to outwit what has come before, resulting in a list of seemingly random and surreal definitions of sarcasm. Ascroft leaves much for the reader to ponder – is the poem a riddle or an elaborate joke? Or perhaps neither?
Re-verse I N T R O D U C E D BY C H R I S T S E
SA RCA S M I S T H E LOW E ST FORM OF WHIST Sarcasm is... the lowest form of limbo. the tallest monkey puzzle tree in Mid-Canterbury. the lowest note on the piano and sounds like murrr, almost unmusical.
Why read it: I would bet money on Ascroft having the most expansive vocabulary among modern New Zealanders, which serves him well in both poetry and his side career as one of our top Scrabble players. Although the poem might have you reaching for Google to help you unlock its wordy wonders and uncover its meaning, it’s best to approach it as a collage of loosely related images that subvert the original Wilde quote, which has become somewhat of a cliché. Ascroft uses his verbal dexterity to both create and manipulate meaning. In doing so, he’s asking the reader to reconsider the meaning of Wilde’s line and the place of sarcasm in modern parlance.
Reverse
Sarcasm is... an archaism of an orgasm. the least impotent of all rage. less cutting than cutty sarcasm, which is a meaningless play on whirs. (Cutty means short and sark means shirt. So in ‘Tam o' Shanter’ by Robert Burns when the witches cast off their rags to reel to the devil’s bagpipes, they are left wearing only nightie-like underthings.)
Sarcasm is... the lowest incantation of witchery. the bottommost and blackest depth of wit, which is a compliment, the lowest form of compliment. By Nick Ascroft From The Stupefying (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2022)
Why I like it: There’s something very auditory about this poem, from unexpected but pleasing turns of phrase (“archaism of an orgasm”) to its references to music and sound (piano, bagpipes, incantations). In this respect, the line “a meaningless play on whirs” seems apt because the poem itself could be seen as an act of play or experimentation that isn’t intended to be taken seriously, just like some sarcasm. Also worth noting is how Ascroft deviates from the structure of the poem in the third stanza, in some ways breaking the fourth wall, by stepping in to “explain” his choice of words by way of a reference to a Burns poem. It’s the most transparent moment of the poem, lifting the veil to reveal the machinery and thinking that is driving the poem. Read more: Ascroft’s latest collection The Stupefying shows off both his waggish wordplay and command of traditional forms mashed with a modern outlook. He also has some of the best titles in the game: “No More Experimental Reincarnated Cat Poetry” and “Greatgrandad Rants about Current Affairs’’ are just two exemplary instances.
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