Get thee to a winery

The title of this post is a line from Peter Rose: it is from the poem 'More Mutant Proverbs (after Peter Porter)' in Crimson Crop. The poem is a list of one-liners that might have otherwise blushed unseen in notebooks. Auden is in thw wings murmuring "weakness for bad puns". Rose is well-stocked … "When in Rome, pay the Romans", "Blessed are the chic", "Après toi, le subterfuge" …

The Apocryphal Past

I am very much enjoying leafing through Peter Rose's new collection Crimson Crop.

The poem 'Green Park' carries the dedictation 'for Peter Porter' and ends with the resonant line

Silent we follow the apocryphal past

A seemingly Porteresque line, and 'apocryphal' feels like a Porteresque word, but I can't actually think of a single instance where Porter uses it (blog comments on this point greatly appreciated!). And if this is the case it raises an interesting question about what I am thinking when I think it is the sort of word he would have used.