1<?xml version="1.0"?> 2<!DOCTYPE package PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Package//EN" 3 "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"> 4<html> 5<head> 6<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /> 7<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /> 8<title>The Devil’s Dictionary: Y</title> 9</head> 10<body lang="en-US"> 11 12 13<h1>Y</h1> 14 15<p class="entry"><span class="def">Yankee</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> In 16Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In 17the Southern States the word is unknown. (See DAMNYANK.)</p> 18 19<p class="entry"><span class="def">year</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A period 20of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.</p> 21 22<p class="entry"><span class="def">yesterday</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The 23infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entire past of age.</p> 24 25<div class="poem"> 26<p class="poetry">But yesterday I should have thought me blest<br /> 27To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak<br /> 28Of middle life and look adown the bleak<br /> 29And unfamiliar foreslope to the West,<br /> 30Where solemn shadows all the land invest<br /> 31And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak<br /> 32Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak<br /> 33The haunted twilight of the Dark of Rest.<br /> 34Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame<br /> 35To stay the shadow on the dial’s face<br /> 36At manhood’s noonmark! Now, in God His name<br /> 37I chide aloud the little interspace<br /> 38Disparting me from Certitude, and fain<br /> 39Would know the dream and vision ne’er again.</p> 40 41<p class="citeauth">Baruch Arnegriff</p> 42</div> 43 44<p class="indentpara">It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff was attended at different times by seven 45doctors.</p> 46 47<p class="entry"><span class="def">yoke</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> An 48implement, madam, to whose Latin name, <i>jugum</i>, 49we owe one of the most illuminating words in our language—a word that defines 50the matrimonial situation with precision, point and poignancy. A thousand 51apologies for withholding it.</p> 52 53<p class="entry"><span class="def">youth</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The 54Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a 55following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer.</p> 56 57<p class="poetry">Youth is the true Saturnian Reign,<br /> 58the Golden Age on earth again,<br /> 59when figs are grown on thistles,<br /> 60and pigs betailed with whistles and,<br /> 61wearing silken bristles,<br /> 62live ever in clover,<br /> 63and clows fly over,<br /> 64delivering milk at every door,<br /> 65and Justice never is heard to snore,<br /> 66and every assassin is made a ghost<br /> 67and, howling, is cast into Baltimost!</p> 68 69<p class="citeauth">Polydore Smith</p> 70 71</body> 72</html>