The Norton Anthology of Lost D.C. Poetry
Cover Story
This volume is dedicated to:
WASHINGTON
The delicate blossoms of its femininity,
The tranquil grave of its noble planner,
The joyous canaille who bathe in its fountains,
The rays of sun that beat upon its coliseum,
The majestic spans of the Wilson drawbridge,
The motley detritus that strews its public spaces,
And the other urban jewels that have inspired poets of time immemorial.
Urbem virosque cantant!
Laugh, and the world laughs with you
Weep, and you weep alone
Those famous lines have echoed through the past century. They have been recorded in popular song and appropriated as the title for a 1925 film. To this day, they are known throughout the English-speaking world and inspire sly reformulations. The Daily Show offered one recent twist: “Laugh, and the world laughs with you...unless you’re not in on the joke, or you are the joke.”
Almanacs and encyclopedias will suggest that this timeless morsel was the brainchild of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who published the poem in the New York Sun in 1883. But those accounts ignore the claims of a great soldier and prominent Washingtonian, Col. John A. Joyce.
Joyce, a Confederate veteran and Kentucky transplant, claimed to have tossed the lines off extemporaneously to friends in a Louisville hotel bar more than a decade before they were printed under Wilcox’s name. Aided by his friend, children’s poet and noted prankster Eugene Field, Joyce spent decades promoting his claim. Though no written evidence ever materialized, Joyce took his claim to the grave—he had the lines carved on it.... Continued 
Issue of Feb. 18 - 24, 2005
News and Features
- The Norton Anthology of Lost D.C. Poetry
Cover Story - Pimp My City
Feature - Hall Monitor
The City - The Mayor of 15th Street
The City - Welcome to Brookland International Airport
Nimby Tribunal - Two Tickets to Paradise
The Mail - A Crack in the Sidewalk
The Mail - Sense and Sensibility
The Mail - Slow Going
The Mail - Deliver Us From Evil
The Mail
Columns
- The Real All Blacks
Cheap Seats - Card Sharks
City Desk - Resident Experts
City Desk
Eats
- Fishing for Complements
Young & Hungry
Movies
- Disabilities Act
Film Review - Labor Pains
Film Review
Music
- Looking for Today
Music Review
Theater
- For Better or for Worse
Theater Review - Woman, Thou Art Loose
Theater Review
Arts and Events
- Dance Revolution
Artifacts - Ronald Reagan: Peacenik
Artifacts - Grecian Formula
Arts - GO-GO BOOT
Show & Tell
City Lights
This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.
- Unrest
City Lights - Gogol Bordello
City Lights - Jeff Chang
City Lights - t.p. Luce
City Lights - Sam Fuller’s Asia
City Lights - Malcolm Gladwell
City Lights - Candy Band
City Lights - Panoply Academy Legionnaires
City Lights - Gallagher
City Lights - “Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits”
City Lights - Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
City Lights - Philip Short
City Lights - Brett Smiley
City Lights
Find an Event
Select the type of event, and the particular day this week below.
Submit your event to the City Paper's Event Calendar.
Find a Restaurant
Enter a restaurant name, or select a cuisine and neighborhood below.
Find a Movie
Select a movie theater in the box below to see a list of all movies at that theater.
...Or view a full list of theaters, films, and showtimes.
Search Classified Ads
Post a Classified Ad
Search inventory on the City Paper's CarTango website:
This Week in
City Paper History
- Exit Strategy
Nov. 26 - Dec. 2, 1999 - Midget Wrestling
Nov. 26 - Dec. 2, 1999 - Soulsby on Ice
Nov. 28 - Dec. 4, 1997
