A knee-slapper of an occasional poem has been bringing down the house at “with it” readings of the not-so-well read. It goes like this:

Ballade of the Yale Younger Poets of Yesteryear

Tell me where, oh where are they,
Those Younger Poets of Old Yale
Whose laurels flourished for a day
But wither now beyond the pale?
Where are Chubb, Farrar, and Vinal
With frame as fragile as a bubble?
Where is the late Paul Tanaquil
And where is Lindley Williams Hubbell?

Where’s Banks? Where’s Boyle? Where’s Francis Clai-
Bourne Mason? Where is T.H. Ferril?
Dorothy E. Reid or Margaret Ha-
Ley? Simmering in Bad Poets’ Hell?
J. Ingall’s Metaphysical
Sword (hacking critics’ weeds to stubble)?
Young Ashbery (that is “John L.”)?
And where is Lindley Williams Hubbell?

Where’s Alfred Raymond Bellinger
(If you’ll allow me to exhale
Him avec un accent francais?)
Where’s Faust (Henri) or Dorothy Belle
Flanagan? Where is Paul Engle
(To rhyme whose surname gave me trouble)?
Hath tolled for all the passing bell?
And where is Lindley Williams Hubbell?

Prince of all poets, hear, I pray,
And raise them from their beds of rubble.
Where’s Younger Carolyn Forche?
And where is Lindley Williams Hubbel?

An e-mail to Yoko Danno brought the answer:

“Jesse-san,

Hubbell-sensei’s ashes are buried at the Kannon-ji temple in Ohyamazaki, Kyoto. There’s no tomb but a cube-shaped stone monument dedicated to him is installed in the precincts of the temple. On the copper plate attached to the monument is inscribed his poem (waka):

The year is a rough ocean
with one island

kyu-Tanabata-san
at Kannon-ji

It is 15 minutes’ walk northwestward from the JR Yamazaki station to the Kannon-ji (Yamasaki-Shoten).

There’s your answer Mr. Gwyn. Hey Lew (if you’re reading this), make sure he sees it. Come to think of it, why don’t you include this answer in the next edition of your Book of Forms with some information about Mr. Hubbell? That’s only fair. Maybe include an example or two of his work?