Pity the Beautiful

A Poem by Dana Gioia

Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent.

While Gioia is a contemporary American poet, he is considered a part of the New Formalism movement, which advocates the continued writing of poetry in rhyme and meter, as opposed to free verse, and the New Narrative movement, which advocates the telling of non-autobiographical stories, as opposed to the neurotic autobiographical self-expression found in much post-modern poetry today. His poetry thus seeks to return to more traditional forms of poetic writing, for which many in the poetry community have criticized him.

According to Gioia’s online bio (see link above), “A graduate of Stanford Business School, Gioia claims to be ‘the only person, in history, who went to business school to be a poet.’ He later rose to become a vice president at General Foods, where he marketed products such as Kool-Aid. These experiences in the corporate world, Gioia states, ‘taught me a lot of things that have helped me as a poet.’ In 1992, he committed himself to writing full-time. Most recently, he served as chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2008.”

You can read more here:

• Dana Gioia (Poetry Foundation)

• “Christianity and Poetry” by Dana Gioia

• “The Integrity of Poetry” by Micah Mattix

And now, please enjoy the following poem, “Pity the Beautiful” by Dana Gioia, which is the centerpiece poem for his fourth poetry collection, also titled Pity the Beautiful. Have a lovely weekend!

Cover photo for Dana Gioia’s fourth poetry collection Pity the Beautiful

Pity the beautiful,

the dolls, and the dishes,

the babes with big daddies

granting their wishes.

~

Pity the pretty boys,

the hunks, and Apollos,

the golden lads whom

success always follows.

~

The hotties, the knock-outs,

the tens out of ten,

the drop-dead gorgeous,

the great leading men.

~

Pity the faded,

the bloated, the blowsy,

the paunchy Adonis

whose luck’s gone lousy.

~

Pity the gods,

no longer divine.

Pity the night

the stars lose their shine.

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