may my mistress catching me in bed with her daughter

It's nonsense, like my uncle saying his preferred way to go would be to get shot in the back of the head by a jealous husband at 90. Taking the piss out of himself.

It’s a nonsense poem...my DH wants to die at age 99 because his mistress knocks the throttle on the private jet he is piloting while giving him a BJ. Should I be outraged by the fact that this poor woman will obviously die too?

I mean he's saying he DOES want an 'exciting' death, rather than a boring old person death when you just get weak and frail and die in a bed. He doesn't actually want any of those things to happen but he does want the end of his life to be quick and unexpected and as a result of living if that makes sense.

It's a silly poem with crazy examples. It was one of my favourites when I was younger from a book of the nation's favourite poems. My other favourites from that book were Chocolate Cake and The Lady of Shallot.

but it does make a really good title for a thread that will get people to click on it don't it.

yep it's a poem about not wanting to have those things happen. but I suppose you can take it out of context and see it as the opersite.

The poem is called ‘How to die a young man’s death’.
Here’s the previous verse:

Or when I’m 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber’s chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns
burst in and give me a short back and insides

I don’t think Roger McGough has secret connections to the mafia.
It doesn’t say how old his mistress is in the poem. She could well be a similar age to him, making the daughter in her 70s or 80s.
I would not have a problem with my kids reading that.

Thanks Bespin, so in context he's saying he doesn't want that to happen. Makes more sense now.

Nobody's concerned about the promotion of domestic violence? She's cutting him up into little pieces.
Just like the mistress line, it's fiction, it's a poem.

just for a bit of context for this nonsense poem.

Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death

Let me die a youngman’s death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I’m 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I’m 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber’s chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I’m 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman’s death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
‘what a nice way to go’ death

And even more sadly I probably wouldn't have noticed how shocking a line that really is without you pointing it out.

I am as culturally conditioned as anyone else, so otherwise dull men seem more interesting if they have a mistress. I am thinking of the effect John Major's affair with Edwina Currie had on his reputation, or Hugh Grant getting arrested when with Divine Brown.

Ew.

It's that thing of an old man having a mistress being a bit edgy and to seduce the daughter even more so.

He probably admires Woody Allen.

Sadly it is just everyday misogyny in which women are sex objects in his imagination.

I think it's code for prat @nauticant

One thing I've noticed from twitter spats is how often progressive beardy blokes with dodgy misogynistic views have the word "poet" in their bio.

A man so deluded he thinks that at 104 he'll not only have a mistress (f*ck off) but that her daughter will want to have sex with him 🤣

Poems 'to live by'? Poems to learn about male entitlement from more like.