For my husband, Harry Scott Gibbons.
And my agent, Barbara Lowenstein.
With love.
To Minerva
My temples throb, my pulses boil, I’m sick of Song and Ode and Ballad-So, Thyrisis, take the Midnight Oil And pour it on a lobster salad.
My brain is dull, my sight is foul, I cannot write a verse or read-Then, Pallas, take away thine Owl, And let us have a lark instead.
– Thomas Hood