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CLEMENS (SAMUEL L.) 'Mark Twain' Autograph letter signed ("From your well-wishing friend Mark Twain"), to "Jack", promising to celebrate his birthday that evening and enclosing his poem 'Invocation', At Sea, August 28 1895
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CLEMENS (SAMUEL L.) 'Mark Twain'
Footnotes
'COME, KANGAROO, THE GOOD & TRUE/FORESHORTENED AS TO LEGS/AND BODY TAPERED LIKE A CHURN': The poem was first published in The Mercury in Australia on 2 November 1895. Clemens himself printed it in Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, 1897, and explained that an English naturalist [presumably the addressee 'Jack'] on board had told him much about the animals of Australia and their origins, particularly the platypus and kangaroo. The Mercury reported that at a lecture Clemens had stated: 'I have a poem. I have written a poem only once in 30 years. I have now written one of four stanzas...I always have an inspiration to write a poem -- once every 30 years...First I thought of Sydney Harbour...Then I thought of the fauna of Australia...I made a list of them and began...I can say now that the most difficult thing in the world to do is to write poetry when you don't know how...'





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